With Our Arms Wide Open
by Shilyn
Summary: Sequel to So much for the Hanyou's Happy Ending. Inuyasha and Kagome welcome their pup into the world. But its not long before they are threatened. An ancient hanyoueater and an albino inuyoukai... Inuyasha's cousin?...will try to destroy them. Complete
1. Patience Is A Virtue

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha...

A/N: This is a SEQUEL...top understand later events all those who want to read THIS story should first read "So Much for the Hanyou's Happy Ending." And becuase I had someone complain about the name of this story, I've changed it slightly you'll notice...it still describes this story but now it's different enough so that that reader won't (I hope!(winks)) take any offence to it...Sorry to all for the delay again...I haven't had much time to write...I've been REAL busy...play practice, V-day fundraisers for my journalism class, trying to find a date for prom, Homecoming just last weekend, and now tonight, a concert for Journalism...(sighs)...and this morning an ensemble judging thing...(dies) I had to get up at 8 AM, this Saturday Morning, it's just criminal, they stole my sleeping time! (cries)...well anyway, to those who've been waiting for this Ihope this lives up to your expectations, and for those who are new: READ THE OTHER STORY FIRST! Please? Kay...enjoy...leave me a review...(note: shaved ice is basically a snow-cone. I use that term becuase it's used in the fabulous book, "Memoirs of a Geisha." and b/c do you honestly think that in Feudal Era Japan they called the snack that? They probably didn't have it at all! But so what...(grins) I added it anyway...)

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**Prologue: Patience is a Virtue**

"Are you deaf old man? I said a _baby's_ kimono! Not a sissy's!" the old shopkeeper blinked unsteadily at the black-haired, blue-eyed man before him for a moment longer before he withdrew the tiny pink baby's kimono and began searching through his collections for something different. His old, arthritic hands shook as he did so; he was, literally, painfully slow.

The two men that were waiting on him could almost have been brothers for their most basic features—but anyone who knew them better than just looking at them could tell you that they were completely unalike in most respects. One of them wasn't even completely human.

The first man, demanding the baby's kimono, was the half-demon Inuyasha, though because the sun had just set and it was the night of the new moon, he now appeared completely human. But his personality remained unchanged. He was in a hurry and the old man wasn't helping, not in the least. Shopping for the women at home had taken long enough as it was, and _now_ the most important part of their trip—as far as Inuyasha was concerned—was taking _forever!_

The other man was Miroku, of course, with his short black hair and blue eyes. He hung behind Inuyasha a bit, frowning at the hanyou's rudeness, although he certainly could understand it, considering what was happening back at the estate. On either side of him were his sons, Kohimu on the left, Tisoki on the right. His only daughter, Kasai, now about nine months old, was at home with Sango, Shippo, and Kagome. Both boys were eagerly munching on some cherry flavored shaved ice—the autumn air was still fairly hot after the summer months. Kohimu was jabbering wildly in between his bites, though Miroku wasn't sure if he was trying to talk to Tisoki or not—the boy was a simple chatter bug, if someone listened to him that was fine, but if no one listened, hey that was good too.

Inuyasha had lost his patience. "Look old man, just give me a boy's kimono! But make sure it's nice…I'll pay, don't you worry…" he growled and began to fumble about his red haori, searching for his bag of currency, "But _hurry up!_ My wife's at home about to have our first son!"

The old man wearily produced a dark blue kimono and a red under robe to go with it. He eyed Inuyasha amusedly as the hanyou fingered the material, trying to determine its value and whether or not it was acceptable for the likes of _his_ offspring, _his_ son, _his_ pup…finally he nodded with an almost reluctant grunt and began to count out coins. _Nothing_ would please him completely…

As he collected his fee the old man decided to try and challenge the hanyou, "All this money for a babe that's not even born yet? Hmm…what if it's a girl?"

Inuyasha snorted and began bundling up the small kimono in tissue paper that the old man handed him, "It's not." He answered curtly.

"But you can't know that yet, it's not born!" the old man's eyebrows were abruptly discernable from the shadows of his eyes, like jumping caterpillars.

Inuyasha stopped what he was doing and glared at the old man in warning, "_I can._ I've smelled it for months now. It's a boy as sure as I live and breathe." His fingers began working over the coins and paper once more simultaneously counting out money and wrapping his as yet unborn son's first gift and first kimono…_like mother like son, I'll raise Koinu in the finest of everything, just as I spoil Kagome…_his face blushed through the dark, burning red, and the hanyou-turned human was grateful suddenly for the new moon and its lack of light hiding his expression. There'd been many a time when one of the kimonos he acquired for Kagome had come to need tailoring for a nasty tear in the embroidery—the result of Inuyasha's hasty, hungry, and passionate hands reaching for her when they were alone, claws and all…

The old man shook his head, recapturing Inuyasha's attention, "You can't _smell_ a baby's gender…"

Inuyasha growled and didn't bother to tell the man otherwise. It was pointless to argue. Besides, should he indulge the old man he'd have to reveal himself as part demon. _That_ wouldn't go over well. It'd be likely that the man would screech in fear and try to drive him off. Though if it saved Inuyasha from having to pay for the kimono…the hanyou shook the thought off—he'd been hanging around Miroku too long. The monk was a clever scam artist when the occasion called for it.

The coins rattled pleasantly as Inuyasha handed them over and slipped the tiny tissue-wrapped kimono into his haori. The old man had abandoned conversation and instead was sifting through the coins with his gnarled fingers, counting. He nodded to himself as his lips moved silently, apparently approving of Inuyasha's payment. Finally he looked up and bowed, "I am pleased to do business with you, great lord…" he searched Inuyasha's face for a moment, likely seeking a name, or an official title. It was obvious that the man before him wasn't poor, and he wasn't descended from mere peasants either.

The hanyou had already turned mostly away, but he paused a moment and looked quickly back at the old man, crossing his arms so that his hands disappeared into the red folds of his haori. "Hmm…" he pursed his lips. Just beyond him Miroku was comforting Tisoki, who'd started to cry when he dropped his shaved ice onto the ground, and Inuyasha listened to the cries with a strange stirring in his gut…_baby cries…_

He nodded at the old man and said, "I'm Lord Higurashi, pleasure doing business with you old man!" then he turned swiftly on his barefooted heel and grabbed Kohimu up into his arms, hoisting the boy onto his shoulders. Kohimu squealed with surprise and delight, clinging to Inuyasha and laughing. Tisoki, seeing this, was distracted from the current crisis involving his snack and began to squeal and reach for Miroku, trying to get his father to do the same trick for him. Miroku shook his head and threw Inuyasha's retreating form a glare. _He'll only do that tonight. Any other night and Kohimu would pull on his dog-ears._ The monk chuckled to himself and then scooped Tisoki up high into the air and onto his shoulders. The youngster grabbed hold of his hair and held tightly—painfully actually, but Miroku bore it without so much as a wince.

"Hurry up Miroku!" Inuyasha barked from up ahead, his pace already picking up, his steps eager and quickened with his anxious thoughts of Kagome. Miroku caught up as swiftly as he could while at once trying not to jar his son too much, but it wasn't good enough for Inuyasha.

"Miroku! _Come on!_ At the rate you walk my son will be celebrating his first birthday by the time we get home!"

"Patience is a virtue, Inuyasha…" Miroku answered the hanyou tightly as he caught up and they began walking, the boys on their shoulders, giggling gleefully.

"So is timeliness!" the hanyou snapped back, "Besides, I've waited long enough for this!"

Miroku was unimpressed, "Stop it Inuyasha, it hasn't been _that_ long. We've only been shopping for a few hours now…"

"No, monk, you don't understand—I've been waiting for this pup with Kagome all my _life."_

* * *

Sango grimaced—if she survived this with the bones in her hands unbroken it'd be a miracle.

The room was dark, not only had the sun set but during the day the shades and screens had been drawn to keep the room dark and peaceful for Kagome. Now no one had taken the time to light the candles, and thus the room and most of the estate was shrouded in an eerie darkness—which was compounded by the fact that this was the night of the new moon. Only the stars provided light and Sango was suspicious that clouds had moved in during the evening, darkening the world faster than normal. But Sango hadn't been outside of Kagome and Inuyasha's room for hours, she had no real way of knowing…the only thing she _did_ know was that she needed Inuyasha and Miroku back to help and comfort Kagome—and that her hands were being squeezed into oblivion.

Kagome had awoken with minor contractions some 24 hours ago. Everything started out calm enough—Kagome walked about the estate trying to keep herself busy to stimulate the contractions and speed delivery as her mother had instructed, Miroku and Sango tended to the estate and retrieved the midwife, and Inuyasha had trailed Kagome like a stray dog looking for scraps. But things quickly spiraled into slight chaos—Kagome announced that the village's midwife wouldn't be involved with her pup's birth, she had some past grudge with the midwife that none of the others understood (A/N: (winkwink) If you don't understand this it comes from "So Much For The Hanyou's Happy Ending," the chapter called "Rin Returns." This same midwife betrayed Kagome to Rin, thus the grudge Kagome feels now…). And then the laboring woman snapped at Inuyasha as well—his pacing beside her and continuous worrying was making her nervous.

Thus Sango had ordered the men to go shopping for the day so that Kagome could progress through her labor in the quiet and mostly abandoned estate. Mayuko, the couple's housekeeper, remained to help watch Shippo and Kasai, the only children who hadn't left with the men to shop. Kasai was still a baby, watched and entertained entirely by the housekeeper in a different room while Sango helped with the labor, but Shippo's youkai senses were actually called into service while Kagome labored.

Without a midwife trained to spot danger signs and to assure that the baby wasn't dying inside its mother, Shippo's nose and ears came into play. The young youkai could smell changes in Kagome's and the pup's scents, as well as _hear_ their separate heartbeats. If Inuyasha had been there he would've provided the service, but when the hanyou did it he bothered Kagome by worrying. While she'd paced earlier in the day the hanyou had followed at close proximity and announced each coming contraction—as if Kagome couldn't _feel_ its obvious approach.

Now, with the men gone and Shippo taking a breather—seeing his surrogate mother in such pain deeply bothered the young kitsune—Sango alone remained with the laboring soon-to-be mother, sitting behind the other woman, letting Kagome squeeze her hands with each contraction. The pains had begun to pick up, finally, and Kagome was growing too tired to continue walking. Her forehead was beaded out with sweat, her hair matted with the stuff, her breathing shaky. Sango tried to reassure her but she knew—from three brushes with labor herself—that Kagome probably couldn't hear or understand her words—and likely couldn't have cared less.

Finally as the latest pain passed Kagome, quietly catching her breath, murmured quietly, "Inuyasha…" Sango leaned forward, trying to place her ear next to the other woman's lips, to hear the words this time.

"What is it Kagome, I'm here, I'm listening, you're doing wonderfully…"

Kagome's weight fell onto Sango then, the contraction leaving her exhausted. Heat radiated from her skin as her body worked and suffered. Somehow, through all of this, Kagome tried to repeat her words, "Inuyasha?" her hands on Sango's grew limp as dead fishes.

"He's coming soon, Kagome, honey. It's okay. You're through the waiting—you're baby's going to be born soon…"

The exhausted mother-to-be shook her head weakly. "I can't do this anymore Sango…"

Sango felt her insides tighten up; she bit her lips worriedly. "I know it hurts, honey, but you've done well. It's nearly over. A few more hours. Then you'll be able to hold your baby…think about the baby. Think about it—him." she remembered at the last moment that Inuyasha had been proclaiming that the baby, or pup as the hanyou called it, was a boy without any doubt. Miroku had done the same when Kasai was born and been dead wrong when their first daughter arrived. Sango held the quiet belief that the couple would have a daughter as well—though Shippo seemed to agree with Inuyasha strangely. She tried to soothe Kagome again, "Think about what the baby will be like. What're you going to name it?"

Kagome let out a long tired breath—something that might've been a sigh if she weren't in so much pain and stress, "Koinu. It's a boy."

Sango nodded against the other young woman, smiling at the couple's apt name(for those of you who don't know or forgot, "Koinu" means "puppy" in Japanese). "Everything will be fine…" she looked to the door and moved away from Kagome slightly to yell for the kitsune. "Shippo!" she could feel Kagome tensing against her as she prepared for the attack of the next pain, and almost yelled again before she heard the sound of the kitsune's paws scrabbling over the floor, heading their way.

Kagome took a deep breath and whispered something Sango barely caught, "I don't know if I can do this here…Mom…Sango…_Inuyasha_…hospital…" Sango blinked at the last word, confused. She'd never heard it before.

"What do you mean, Kagome?" she asked, but already she knew the terrible pain of birthing was reabsorbing the laboring woman. At that moment, just as Kagome's fingers clenched on Sango's hands, crunching tendons and bones together, making the demon slayer wince, Shippo entered the room and ran to perch himself atop Sango's shoulder, panting, ears pricked.

"Inuyasha and Miroku are coming!" he announced happily, green eyes sparkling sharply in the dim light.

Sango nodded, ignoring the pain in her hands as Kagome labored onward, "Shippo, listen to her for me, smell her for me, is everything all right?"

Shippo was silent for a time and all that could be heard was Kagome's labored, rough breathing as the pain stretched over and through her, knives of it, cutting her in two. Then, slowly the kitsune nodded through the darkness, "I think they're both fine, Sango. How much longer?" his voice trembled a little at the end.

Sango shook her head, "I honestly don't know, I'm only a mother, not a midwife…" she swallowed nervously remembering how Kagome had insisted on doing this without the midwife's help, although no one else had agreed with her. Did she regret now?

Abruptly Shippo sniffed and began quivering on Sango's shoulder. She looked at the kitsune fearfully, "What is it Shippo? What's wrong?"

"She…it smells like…" he continued quivering and words left him, failing…but at that moment the door slid open roughly and a new, large, and powerful form stood enveloped in the light of the doorway. Sango felt a rush of relief swarm her senses. But just as she felt this she noted that Inuyasha seemed sterner than he should've been, worry tinted her relief swiftly.

"What is it?" the demon slayer demanded, and then felt Kagome fall slack against her once more, spent with the latest contraction…and looking over Kagome's shoulder she knew immediately what both demons had sensed—there was a spreading pinkish stain growing on the sheets between Kagome's legs…her water had finally broken.

It was Inuyasha who spoke as he entered the room, his voice dark but full of anticipation, answering Sango's question. "It's the pup—he's coming."

Endnote: Yes I left you a cliffy! Ah! Write in and tell me what you thought and how much you hate me for it! (snickers) but no more threats on my life. Some weirdo wrote in and said they'd kill me. If that happens anymore I'm going to turn off the annonymous accepting thing on my review alert thing, and then I won't be able to hear from everyone! I don't want to have to do that...but having one flake say they'd kill me is more than enough...just saying...thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed everything! Until the first official chapter is up and posted. It's called: "Birth." Hehehe...(grins) see ya then!


	2. Birth

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Inuyasha...

**A/N:** Wow! That was quite a welcome! I could never abandon the sequel after that! (grins) in actuality I've had the first official chapter written for a while now, i just had to have the time to upload, preen, and post it. I like to have everything written up long before it's posted, gives me enough time to think about it...

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****Birth**

_I should be at a hospital!_ Kagome's thoughts screamed, struggling to be heard and experienced above her pain. She ground her teeth together in anxiety, her body taut as a bowstring. _What if something goes wrong?_ Then all thoughts were obliterated as the pain soared and peaked through her. She tried desperately to steel herself against crying out but a low moan of agony escaped nonetheless.

Sitting behind her Inuyasha's dog-ears would've been flattened with worry and stress—_if _this hadn't been the night of the new moon. His still acutely sensitive nose and hearing told him everything Kagome was going through nonetheless, and he felt simply miserable about it. The sweat on her forehead, blood and other birth fluids leaking from her, and the raging emotions she was experiencing, all reached his nose and forced him to live through the labor a thousand times more acutely than Miroku and Sango did. He knew nothing of what qualified as good or bad as far as baby-birthing and labor went—but he knew one thing clearly, and that was that Kagome was in extreme pain, and he hated it…but most of all he hated that he was helpless to protect her from it. It was a battle she alone could fight, he couldn't step in and defend her with this one, no matter how much he wanted to.

But it was almost over. Six hours of _hard_ labor since her water had broken and now, finally, it was time for Kagome to push the pup out of her body.

Sango, playing midwife, was at Kagome's feet, checking how far she'd dilated and watching for any sign of problems. She had baby blankets, towels, and hot water waiting at her disposal, ready to be used. It was just the three of them—though Miroku hovered, coming in and out once in a while to act as the maid, bringing and taking away various things as Sango ordered. Mayuko, the housekeeper, was watching the children, Shippo, Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai in a different room.

Inuyasha watched Sango carefully as the demon slayer turned midwife bent low to check Kagome's progress when the contraction passed, biting her lip anxiously. After a moment she looked back up at Inuyasha and nodded, "She's starting to try and push now—she's ready."

The hanyou quickly lowered his lips close to his wife's ear and whispered encouragingly, "C'mon Kagome, Sango says this is almost over. It's time to push…you can do it; I know you can Kagome. You've done great…" his hands found hers in the darkness and intertwined with hers in the darkness, "Just a little more and he'll be here…_our pup._" Exhausted though she was Inuyasha felt Kagome nod against him, weakly. She may have even tried to speak, but she gave up, too breathless and fatigued. Everything within her went to the labor, went to the pup's impending birth.

"Push Kagome! Push now!" Sango cried, abruptly excited, throwing encouragement at the soon-to-be mother.

Kagome didn't need the shouting—she knew what had to be done. The instincts lay deep inside her, but they were strong. As if some secret well of hidden strength and stamina had been opened just for this purpose, Kagome took as deep a breath as she could manage and did as she was told—she pushed. The contraction swarmed, as if in response to her actions, blotting her senses, but still, doggedly (A/N: haha! Very **p**unny!) she continued to push.

Inuyasha felt a sickening fear surge through him as he watched her pale hands grip at the sheets, tangling themselves deep within them. Her knuckles bleached completely white. _What if something goes wrong?_ Inuyasha knew nothing of his own mother's labor with him—the subject of birth wasn't something the hanyou's mother had shared with him at such a young age. Perhaps, if he'd been a girl things would've been different, but why should little boys want or need to know about such things? He trusted in Sango to guide he and Kagome through this battle that weapons couldn't win.

Inuyasha was pulled back into the real world when Kagome's breathing changed, becoming more rapid still, though at once weaker. Nervously he looked to Sango through the dim light, straining his ears, desperately trying to hear or scent if his wife and pup were in danger but—_damn the new moon!—_his senses were all reduced to a normal human's standards. He called Sango's name faintly, hoping for answers.

She looked up but only for a moment, "What is it Inuyasha?"

"I can't hear or scent her anymore…is—is she all right?" he hated speaking of her in third person but Kagome was beyond hearing him in truth. He could feel her sagging, exhausted body straining against his.

Sango nodded at him, though she hardly spared him a glance. "It's almost over, Inuyasha. Tell her to push again…"

Pursing his lips determinedly, Inuyasha gave Kagome's now limp hands a squeeze and leaned close to her ear once more, whispering. "Sango says it's almost over Kagome. Just a little more, push again…" despite his reduced senses he could still smell her sweat, and much to his inner embarrassment he felt the strange instinct to lick away her perspiration—like a dog attending to its mate. Had he been a hanyou this night he might've actually been overwhelmed by it, but as a human he was able to push it aside. Even so he pressed his nose to her cheek, hoping the touch would encourage her as much as it soothed his nerves, "I know you can do it Kagome…"

Kagome's body tensed once again as another contraction swept over her, and with a gasp she was pushing again, straining and bearing down with all her might. At the foot of the bed, primed and ready, Sango looked up at Inuyasha and Kagome, her eyes full of a nervous excitement.

"The baby's crowning! It's coming!" She shouted, a tense smile curling her lips.

Kagome let out a brief cry of pain and fell against Inuyasha then, but only for a brief second before her muscles snapped taut and she began again. The pushing was nonstop now—the longer the pup was left in the birth canal the greater its chance of injury, suffocation, and death was. It was all Kagome could do to breathe with the contractions and the pushing, but still she went on…

The smell of sweat, although hovering heavily in the room, was replaced by the irony tang of blood…and then there was a strange, weak and guttural cry that ricocheted through the entire estate as the couple's hard won pup was born. Sango pulled the infant free, swaddling it immediately in linens and blankets, then carefully working to cut the cord still connecting mother and baby. While she worked the tiny child continued to cry, weakly and almost strangled at first, but then with more intensity and strength.

Kagome, exhausted, was panting after her effort, recovering a little of her strength. In fact her battle with labor was not yet over—the afterbirth still had to be passed, and her pain was still intense. Inuyasha stayed behind her, supporting her tired body with his own…but his now human eyes were turned toward the Sango at his wife's feet, and his ears were tuned to the pup's squalls.

_The pup was alive! _He'd dreamed for uncountable years, especially after meeting Kagome's family and seeing how happy they were together, of having his own stable and happy household. Only now had it become reality…he felt light and almost giddy at the realization. Leaning close to his wife he whispered, "You did it! Can you hear him, Kagome? Can you _hear_ him!" he squeezed her hands, and even gave into his strange instincts and began to lick her cheek gently in his enthusiasm.

Kagome, still dazed, didn't respond, but she _did_ hear the child's cries, and she _did_ feel Inuyasha's tongue working over her skin—she was reminded instantly of a cat and a weak smile worked over her lips. Yet the only coherent thought she had at the moment was: _I should've gone to a hospital…painkillers…VERY good…_

Sango had finished with the baby's cord and lifted the pup up into her arms to get a better look at it…but Inuyasha, catching sight of it immediately, could wait no longer. "Sango! Sango, give him to me!"

The demon slayer shook her head, smiling, and walked carefully over to the side of the futon where she set the tiny newborn into Kagome's lap. Tiredly, Kagome tried to hold the baby, who was still screaming quite loudly, but her movements were so slow that Inuyasha ended up holding the pup in her lap from behind. The new mother was too exhausted to hold her own head up to examine her child, but there was a weak smile on her face.

Behind her Inuyasha was silently staring at his pup, dumbfounded. He wanted to see its eyes—what color would they be? But the pup wouldn't stop crying! Inuyasha fidgeted, creeping out from behind Kagome to get a better grasp on his newborn son, determined, like a nervous mother hen, to appease the child's tears. Looking once to his tired wife, who was already beginning to fall into an exhausted sleep, the hanyou turned human and new father scooped the baby up into his arms, cuddling it possessively.

Above him, the demon slayer, hands on her hips, was shaking her head through the darkness, "I only have one question, Inuyasha." she murmured, smiling, "How is it that you knew so confidently that it'd be a boy? You haven't even checked him yet to be sure but you're _still_ calling the baby a boy…"

Inuyasha looked up at her briefly from his pup and flashed a grin, "I could smell it all along Sango!" when he turned his gaze back to the pup his smile became sweeter and more tender—the pup had stopped crying! He could see its eyes now—they were blue! Unfocusedly the little child's eyes landed on him, and Inuyasha smirked when he saw how genuinely annoyed the pup looked. _Just like me I'll bet!_

Sango inhaled sharply then and whispered, "Inuyasha—_he has your ears!_"

Indeed, when the hanyou looked he saw that through the tiny pup's silver hair there were two little white dog-ears, flattened and still wet from birth. Although Sango was grinning ecstatically at this discovery, Inuyasha scowled.

"You poor thing," he muttered, running one finger over the pup's tiny and delicate ears, "Now Kagome will tweak _your_ ears too…"

* * *

It was about noon the next day when the midwife answered a knock on her door with a frown on her face. She was expecting it to be Miroku or Sango or Mayuko, it was always those three that ran errands for the Higurashi couple, Lord Inuyasha and Kagome. Chances were they wanted more painkilling herbs or something with which to bless the arrival of the couple's firstborn child…as far as she cared it could rot! She'd hoped that Kagome, for her arrogance in pushing her expertise away, had lost her baby in childbirth. _That _would teach her! 

But contrary to her expectations the visitor wasn't on an errand—he'd come specifically to speak to her—although she didn't know him at all…the man was tall and wore a blackish-gray hood which thoroughly covered his facial features in a shadow. Yet even so she could still see that he was a handsome young bugger with nothing to hide.

"Yes?" she asked, blinking in confusion.

"Lady," he bowed in acknowledgement, "I have come to ask of Lord Inuyasha…"

She scowled, bitterly, "If this is something for _them_ I'll have nothing to do with it!"

The man appeared surprised for a moment and then smiled easily, "No," he shook his head gently and began again, "My lady, you misunderstand me. I am not here on their behalf. I have come to _learn_ about them, or more precisely the lord Inuyasha…"

The midwife sneered, "Some lord. He didn't tell his stupid wife what was good for her! I went up there to help when she went into labor and she sent me off! _Me!_ Can you believe that sir! _Me!_ And that stupid half-breed _lets_ her do it!"

"Is that so?" his eyes seemed to sympathize with her under the shade of his hood.

"Why yes sir it is!" she snarled, "I had hoped that the miserable woman would die giving birth without my aid, but I hear she survived just fine. In fact that monk and his wife and even the housekeeper have dropped by here every once and a while demanding things for her or the brat."

"The brat, my lady?"

"Yes, yes. The brat. They have a son from what I hear now." She sneered again, an expression her face was most familiar with by the lines of wear around her mouth and eyes, "Born sometime in the wee hours of this morning. Do you know what they plan on calling the thing?"

The stranger shook his head, still listening intently. His dark eyes glittered from beneath his hood.

"They're going to call him Koinu…" she scoffed hatefully, "_Puppy._ What kind of stupid name is _that?"_

"A very stupid name indeed, my lady." He nodded to her and smiled faintly, "I'm sure it shan't live very long."

The midwife snorted, "You'd be surprised. The half-breed's demon brother can't even kill him! And if this brat is anything like its bastardly father then we're going to be stuck with it for a long, _long_ time…" she frowned as the stranger began to turn his back on her and walk away, "Where are you going sir? Come inside, tell me your business here, have some tea why don't you?"

But the man didn't turn back to her, and his pace never slowed. The only thing he did do was say over his shoulder, most casually, "I have already attended to my business here, lady. Thank you very much indeed…"

The midwife frowned as he skulked off, and suddenly she felt a shiver descend over her, ominously.

Endnote: Ooohh...spooky eh? Is this mystery guy good or bad I ask you? You may be inclined to say bad of course, but remember that I am sometimes crafty, shifty, and evil...I'm going to apologize now (bows) to the readers who so desperately wished for Inuyasha and Kagome to have a girl. ((Snickers) Believe me, if there was a way to prove IY wrong about the whole thing, like Miroku and Sango's Kasai in the last story, I would've done it...but knowing what I do about pregnancy and fetal development and such, I couldn't do it.) See depending on the gender of the offspring, thebaby is flooded by whichever appropriate sex hormone is needed (i.e. when I was nothing more than a fetus I was bombarded by estrogen and therefore I'm female.) so from an early age Koinu would've been producing testosterone (I think i spelled that one wrong...grr...) and considering that that's not Kagome's NORMAL hormone I'm sure Inuyasha would be able to smell the difference. So He KNEW it was a boy...but if it'd been a girl he wouldn't have been able to tell...see? I think I yabbed too long, butanyway, that was my thinking. So I'm sorry that it was a boy to those who wished for a girl...(sighs) I just had to give them a boy...hey...there's always the next one eh? (winks)...next is chapter 2: Mother's Work is Never Done...oh and I almost forgot: THANK YOU ALL! All nearly 30 Reviewers! I grin everytime I see another Review alert in my email box! (SQUEE!) YAYS! I shall try to keep updates steady...but remember my schedule IS busy (and getting busiER sadly...(cries))...but THANK YOU ALL! Drop me a line again please, love hearing from everyone! YAYS! Till next time when we see Kagome and IY take on parenting! Feeding time! hehe...and after that it's meet the gradmother and great-grandfather and Uncle Sota! (snickers...) I can't wait! (grins)


	3. Mother's Work Is Never Done

**Disclaimer:** No, I don't own Inuyasha

**A/N:** Well, as I promised...I start off with one of the first challenges to new parents-feeding and care for the baby. I know that this kinda nearly killed my parents. My dad had crackpot theories about how babies never poop after five in the the afternoon/evening. Ha...that was HIS version of our childhood-he never cleaned any of our diapers...(huffs) it was all mom's work...thus I wrote what I thought would be a "perfect" guy, what would make Inuyasha perfect...but it makes sense, and it's kinda funny...see he's never had family before (a theme I stressed in "Hanyou" this storys prequel) so Koinu really REALLY means alot to him. So he really WILL be a doting father, the type that spoils his babies. Hehe...that's the type that my father is, and we were, for years, the only people on this planet that he knew were biologically related to him (he was adopted and kinda hated his adoptive family...) so I think it makes sense...if you disagree write in and tell me so, I really DO listen (grins) and I like hearing from you no matter what...(to fanfiction1: nope I didn't turn off the anonymous thing (winks)) Ah, my last note is actually a question: Do any of the movies, or anywhere in the series, does it cover whether Inutaisho was an only child? Do Sesshomaru and Inuyasha have an aunt or uncle at all? And have we ever seen a cousin at all? That's my question, it's kinda important...if anyone knows, PLEASE! I BEG you! Tell me...I've always been curious...(whimpers) well enough of me blabbing, here's the story...

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* * *

****Mother's Work is Never Done**

Crying woke Kagome, but exhaustion prevented her from stirring. Koinu was hungry—_again._ The pup wasn't a fussy baby, he only cried when his diaper needed changing, when he'd hurt himself, didn't feel good, or was hungry. Otherwise he'd generally be asleep. But although the other things didn't happen very often the little hanyou was _ravenous_—he needed more food more often than Kagome had ever thought possible…of course Inuyasha was unfazed by this, and in fact could remember that his own years as a youth had been filled with one sense above all others—and that had been hunger.

It wasn't _normal_ baby behavior, Sango and Miroku assured her—this was the influence that Inuyahsa's youkai genes were playing on Koinu's development. The pup was, simply put, a pig. Kagome pitied Inuyasha's mother the torture it must've been caring for _him._

Beside her Inuyasha jumped awake, expecting danger. After the pup's birth he'd become a lot more protective, oddly enough, of _everyone_. He slept deeply but was easily roused—as times like now proved.

"WHAT? What's happening?" he muttered, speaking unnecessarily loud. (that's how my dad wakes up!(grins))

"Koinu's crying…" she mumbled, her face still smashed against the pillows.

There was a pause and then Inuyasha responded with a simple, "Oh." And then he leapt from their futon, flinging back the covers, rushing to his pup's aid. Kagome sighed, already knowing that Inuyasha would reach the infant's crib, scent him, and know immediately what the problem was…

"He's hungry." Her husband announced, as she'd expected, and the next thing she heard was the hanyou picking up his son and cheering him up, whispering promises of food as fast as it could be gotten. This quieted the pup swiftly, though he continued to whimper—much like a _real_ puppy would—to remind his father that although he was appeased the problem had not yet been amended.

Inuyasha lit a candle to illuminate their bedroom just a little and then made his way with Koinu is his arms carefully to where Kagome was still pretending to be asleep. Of course Inuyasha knew better, with his keen senses, to fall for that ruse.

With one clawed hand he brushed a stray lock of her black hair from her face and whispered, "Kagome…it's that time again…"

With an exhausted sigh Kagome forced herself up, blinking against the light. As she moved Inuyasha moved pillows behind her back without even being asked to, which made Kagome smile. _Not even Sango was **this** pampered_, she thought. Indeed Inuyasha acted nothing short of her—or was it Koinu's rather—slave since the pup's birth about a month ago.

When she was ready the hanyou passed her the pup, carefully, and Kagome sighed tiredly as she looked down at her young son. He still had blue eyes—she was beginning to think that he would keep them. All babies were born with blue eyes, but a few kept it all their life, though in Japan such a thing was rare to see in normal humans. Among youkai it didn't matter, so Koinu's chance of actually having blue eyes was increased. The pup's ears, the same as his father's, were now clearly sticking up from the rest of his silvery hair, though the pup had yet to learn how to move them.

Mother and pup stared at each other fondly for several moments and then the pup squirmed in her lap eagerly and twitched his mouth, trying to smile. Kagome couldn't help but grin at that; he was, in his own way, apologizing for waking her. Despite her exhaustion she couldn't help but love him, ravenous little part-dog demon as he was.

Inuyasha had already slunk back into the covers at the other side of the futon, but he wasn't sleeping, or even trying to return to the land of slumber. Instead he was sitting close to her, watching the exchange between her and the pup. It was a typical behavior of Inuyasha's, she'd noted, he was overly eager to be involved with the pup or anything that had to do with him. And he took special fondness in watching the interactions between her and Koinu. Kagome often wondered if it was a strange sort of nostalgia that the hanyou was drawn to—after all, Koinu looked suspiciously like Inuyasha and Kagome had the basic features of Lady Izayoi—black hair and brown eyes. Perhaps when Inuyasha stared at scenes between Kagome and his own son he was reminded of sweet moments with his own mother before she had died…

Or maybe it was something else entirely, Kagome thought, throwing her husband a smirk. He caught the glance and blinked at her, golden eyes blank.

"What?"

In Kagome's lap Koinu squealed, squirming a little again, drawing both adults' attention. He was asking for the food his father had promised him. Kagome sighed, loosening her kimono robe to expose one breast, and held the pup up, supporting him. Unlike completely human babies Koinu was stronger and nursed greedily, his tiny but already clawed hands reaching for his mother's skin and clothing, grasping, almost kneading the air like a cat…from a very early age the pup had acted this way, it seemed to be instinct passed on from Inuyasha's dog demon heritage.

She looked quickly to Inuyasha and noted that he was still fixed—riveted—to the scene. She shook her head wearily and sighed, "You hentai…"

The hanyou blinked and looked up at her, innocently. "What do you mean?" Kagome wasn't sure whether this was fake or real—was he genuinely innocent or playing with her coyly? She thought she could see a small sparkle of amusement, a smirk, twinkling in his amber orbs, but she wasn't sure. Fatigue clouded her senses.

"You'd be asleep right now if I weren't sitting here with my chest bared…"

His ears, adorably, folded backward, and he appeared wounded for a moment, but now Kagome was certain he was playing with her. "How could you think something like that?"

She shrugged, though the movement of her shoulders brought a low sound of disapproval from Koinu, a little like a primitive growl. Inuyasha laughed heartily at the pup then, nodding his approval, "He's my son all right!" he grinned through the dim candlelight, his white teeth and fangs glittering.

Kagome snorted, "As if you had _any_ doubt!"

The hanyou chuckled, unable to dismiss her words—certainly they were true. How many other dog-eared, silver haired men were there that could've fathered the pup in her arms? Except for Koinu's blue eyes he was identical to Inuyasha, and everything that the generally kinless hanyou could've asked for or dreamt of…a surge of pride and love reached Inuyasha and he moved in close to his wife, nuzzling her neck, taking in her rich scent, grazing her skin teasingly with his lips and teeth…

_That_ woke Kagome up. Blinking she shivered a little at his closeness, at his hot breath on her flesh…but although she felt the distantly familiar sense of desire rise within her Kagome stifled it. The pup was still nursing and it was too soon after her pregnancy and difficult labor…she hated the thought of denying the hanyou but although she was willing her body was likely unprepared still. As if Koinu took offence to his parent's flirtations, he ceased his suckling and squealed, catching their attention.

"What is it, Koinu?" Kagome asked him, smiling down at her son warmly. At her side, with his lips still to her neck, Inuyasha stopped his movement and withdrew, sensing that the time was not quite right. Instead he offered his baby-problem-detecting services.

The hanyou sniffed once and then wrinkled his nose, "He's wet himself."

"Oh." At her words Koinu whimpered, his little face starting to pucker up in frustration. His legs kicked feebly at the air.

"I'll change him." Inuyasha announced and scooped Koinu up and out of his wife's arms in a second, swiftly leaving the room after finding a new linen diaper for his son.

Alone Kagome sighed, not wearily this time, but happily. Inuyasha, as it turned out, wasn't squeamish about diapers and he, as a result, did most of Koinu's changes. It was just as Kagome had thought earlier—her husband was a slave to his son and wife…well…maybe more to his son, but if it let her sleep she could've cared less…

Kagome slid under the covers after tightening her robe once more and immediately fell asleep, peaceful and content.

* * *

A man in a black hood and cape waited at the entrance to the Lord of the Western Land's great castle, a small burlap sack in his hand. The ground around him was covered in a thin layer of crusted snow. In the lowlands it was still autumn and the air, although containing an ominous chill at night, was still pleasant during the day—and there was a complete absence of snow. But here, where the castle was so prestigious and proudly perched, in the highlands the first snows had already fallen, though warm weather in the afternoons had melted most of it away…yet just beyond the gates of the castle the hooded stranger knew that the grounds of the Inuyoukai lord, son and heir of the dreaded former Lord Inutaisho, were warm and bathed in spring's magnificent glow. The youkai's strength alone kept it thus while outside his walls the highlands froze in the fall and winter, shriveling and dying.

Just as he'd expected, a small boy appeared abruptly, pulling himself out from under a broken, dug out spot just to the left of the huge and magnificent castle's gates. The stranger smiled to himself and held the burlap bag higher into the air so that the little boy could see it clearly. With a squeal of excitement the boy raced forward eagerly, slowing only at the last minute to stop and bow low to the stranger in black.

"Shero at your service, sir." The boy murmured faintly, his breath coming in quick gasps. He'd just run through the gardens of the castle from the stables where he was learning to be a stable boy for the great and mighty Lord Sesshomaru. (If you don't know him this is the orphan boy from So Much For The Hanyou's Happy Ending.)

The stranger nodded curtly and smiled in the shadow of his hood; "Thank you Shero, I'm sure you'll serve me well…" he reached into the small bag with one hand and pulled out a small sugar cane, handing it to Shero gently. The boy's eyes bugged out in glee and he took the treat from the stranger with restrained eagerness. The moment it was in his hands he bit into it viciously, savoring the taste only a second or two before swallowing his cache and biting again. In no time at all the sugarcane was completely consumed and the stranger began to casually ask Shero about the Lord and Lady of the Western Lands.

"How are the rulers of these lands doing, Shero? You serve them, do you not?"

The boy nodded eagerly, still chewing, "I do, since my parents were killed…" he sniffled a moment, distressed, and then began again, meeting the stranger's eyes openly and honestly, "Lord Sesshomaru is away from the castle—I don't know where he went. And Lady Rin is probably still sleeping because Lord Sesshomaru-sama hasn't come to wake her up because he isn't here."

"The lady sleeps this late?" the stranger frowned slightly, apparently worried, "Tell me Shero, is she well?"

Shero chuckled to himself a moment and nodded enthusiastically, "Rinrin is like that. She sleeps late like that all the time."

The dark man nodded and absently his hand brought out another sugarcane and offered it to the eager boy. As Shero munched on his sweet snack the man asked, "How has the Lady Rin been doing? Has there been talk of an heir for the Western Lands?"

Shero blinked up at the man, clearly confused with this question, "Sir, what do you mean? Rinrin won't have Lord Sesshomaru-sama's _heirs…_" the boy regarded the darkly-clothed stranger as if he'd suddenly grown three pairs of wings and sprung into the air, singing American Christmas carols. "You must be _really_ new to the Western Lands, sir, if I may say so." Among Sesshomaru's people, particularly his servants, nothing was better known. Lady Rin was their lord's lover and mate—the one he _wished_ to spend his time with, but his duties as the lord and ruler of the Western Lands and to the great dog demon clan from which he was descended, dictated that his _heir_ be a full youkai, not a hanyou. That Rin was human and therefore an unsuitable partner in the creation of _heirs_, was widely known and somewhat lamented among close servants such as Shero. The stranger's ignorance betrayed him as an outsider—for he'd assumed that Rin was a dog demon, the same as Sesshomaru.

The stranger didn't understand his folly and didn't need to—he merely offered Shero another sugarcane, quieting the boy's sudden concern with its simple sweetness. As the boy chewed the stranger asked his question anew, though carefully rephrased, "Does Lord Sesshomaru want Lady Rin to have his children?"

Shero stopped gnawing on his sugarcane to look up at the mysterious stranger with a simple look in his eyes, to an American it shouted, "Duh!" and to the Japanese it screamed, "Baka! What kind of question is that!" of course Shero never said these things aloud, he was too well trained and carefully respectful of his elders for that. Instead he swallowed his treat and nodded at the stranger.

"Lord Sesshomaru-sama wants her to have lots of pups!" he grinned at this thought. A dog in the stables had recently birthed a litter of puppies. Shero loved sitting near them, listening to the whimpering, crying noises they made as they suckled agains their mother's warm furry belly. When he heard Rinrin talking to her closest maids about Sesshomaru's continued desire for "pups," he'd always laughed inside thinking about the tiny whelps in the barn, suckling happily away, so adorable and fuzzy and warm…

"Do you think that it will happen anytime soon?"

Shero cocked an eye at the stranger, suddenly feeling as if he were betraying his lord and lady who'd been so kind to him since the terrible demons had stormed through his village a few years ago; slaughtering the villagers…Shero had been lucky to survive. His mother, thinking fast, had hidden him inside a beer barrel…through the rank stench of alcohol the demons had never found him—but the rest of his village had not been so lucky…once the demons left Shero left the security of the barrel and searched for his mother—he found only her clothing and the shattered, torn, bloodied pulp that had once been her body. When Sesshomaru had come across him the next morning Shero had wandered some miles away from his village, delirious, covered in his mother's blood and the stale, sticky, dried remnants of beer. The Inuyoukai lord had taken in the orphan without a word, and that was how he'd become a member of the Western Lord's household.

Now, looking to the stranger, it struck him that this man hadn't offered him a name, and hadn't even revealed his face…

"No, sir, I don't think Rinrin will have a pup soon." He muttered, turning his gaze away, "And I thank you for the sugarcanes, but I must go now, I beg leave of you…" he bowed slightly and turned fast on his heel, dashing away.

The stranger watched the boy flee, cursing himself for being clumsy. How could he have just put the boy on such edge? Now he'd never know if the last few questions had received correct answers…but what did it matter? Just looking at the walls of Sesshomaru's castle he knew that the Inuyoukai lord would likely not fall for any of his trickery. This lord's child would be unreachable, buried deep beyond the walls of the lord's land, high in the protection of the castle, surrounded by servants that were loyal even at the thought of death…only an army might even come close, and the stranger cringed at the thought of his kind dying in such numbers, futilely.

But the brother's estate was smaller, more personal. Fewer people inhabited the place, fewer to suspect anything, to question him…it would be far easier to reach a child in the younger brother's estate than it would be at Sesshomaru's castle.

The stranger nodded once to himself and carefully stowed the sack into his cloak. After a last look toward the walls of the Inuyoukai lord's castle, he turned and began to walk slowly away through the thin layer of crunching snow…

* * *

Kagome and Sango sat, nearly shoulder to shoulder, on the steps leading up to the verandah before the sliding entryway door, watching as Kohimu, Tisoki and Shippo played tag with each other and wrestled. The weather was still calm and pleasant outside, although the nights brought more and more chill with each appearance of the moon. The cherry trees in Inuyasha and Kagome's small and modest garden had almost entirely shed their leaves by now. As they ran, the three older boys skittered up the leaves and tripped over them. Shippo was especially fond of this time of year—grabbing a leaf up he could easily dodge the other two boys in tag by playing one of his kitsune youkai tricks on them.

In each young woman's lap there was a baby—in Sango's it was her little daughter Kasai, and in Kagome's it was her pup Koinu. Kasai, with her gleaming blue eyes, had already taken to listening to her mother's speech attentively, trying to pick up the patterns of speech even when the words weren't directed at her. Though as the two mothers sat watching over the older children Kasai's eyes were naturally drawn to their sharp movements and shouts. In Kagome's lap, meanwhile, Koinu was sleeping, fitfully. The infant shivered and jumped like a sleeping puppy in Kagome's lap. His tiny eyelids flickered, his fingers twitched, his legs and arms jerked, and his little adorable ears twittered involuntarily.

"I can't believe how fast they grow, Kagome." Sango sighed next to the new mother; "I can still remember when Kasai was born, just as if it had been last month, and not almost last year!" the demon slayer's eyes were bittersweet. Kagome could only nod in agreement. To her Sango's children had grown up remarkably fast, but she couldn't possibly understand how it felt for the demon slayer to actually _live_ that. It was one thing watching another's children grow up, and quite a different thing to live through your own…

She looked down at Koinu's sleeping form for a moment and ran a finger lovingly along the pup's jaw line and neck, up to his dog-ears, so obviously inherited from his father the famous hanyou Inuyasha. Beneath her touch the pup gave a whimpering noise and his muscles jerked spasmodically for a moment before he settled once more…but now Kagome could see the pup had puckered his little lips and was making a gentle but consistent sucking motion…likely he was about to wake up and be hungry—_again._

"Kagome," Sango began again, recapturing her young friend's attention, "I've been wondering something…it took you _so_ long to have Koinu…" the demon slayer looked timidly to Kagome with her warm brown eyes, embarrassed, "…do you and Inuyasha think it will ever happen again?"

Kagome blinked, surprised at that question. In truth she hadn't given it much thought. To her Koinu's birth had still been so recent to her—and so hard and excruciatingly painful—that she was in no hurry to do it again. Besides, Sango _was_ right about Koinu, Kagome hadn't exactly fallen pregnant quickly, it wasn't easy like catching a cold or something, although Sango seemed to make it look that way.

She focused her gaze on Koinu as she answered Sango's question, her fingers grazed over the pup's skin lovingly. "It's not been long enough for me to even think about it Sango…" she sighed. Realizing that she _had_ been pregnant at all late the year before had been a shock, and the imminent arrival of the pup had almost been the cause of Inuyasha and Kagome's forced separation. Sesshomaru, perceiving a future threat to his own offspring, had almost driven Inuyasha over the edge, only the young woman named Rin had been able to intervene and convince Sesshomaru otherwise…

_Now_ she could only wonder if happiness with Koinu was real, or if she was still a month or two pregnant, dreaming up this fantasy…but Koinu's weight in her lap felt real enough, and the memory of her labor to give birth to him was definitely convincing. _Could _she do it again?

Kagome shook her head. "Maybe we'll try later, but not until Koinu's older." She laughed then, "Anymore pups and I think that they'd starve!" she'd have to raise the pups on formula from her Era, Koinu already thought he was starving and she barely had anything to give him…she shuddered at the thought of nursing him once his teeth started to come in!

"He'll always have Shippo and my boys to play with." Sango promised, nodding her head. In her lap Kasai squealed and reached out as Shippo bounded to the foot of the stairs, Kohimu fast on his tail, literally.

"Shippo!" both women shouted, pulling their babies close to them for protection as Shippo leapt clear over them and Kohimu stumbled on the second stair and fell, cutting his knee. The next thing that followed his hard landing was a loud wail as the sight of blood beginning to ooze out of his kneestartled the boy.

"Mama!" he screamed, looking to Sango with his large, innocent, chocolate brown eyes wide in new terror.

"Oh no…" Sango turned to Kagome, "Do you have some small bandages?"

Kagome smiled warmly and nodded, "I'll go get them Sango. No problem. A mother's work is never done huh?"

Sango was already at the foot of the stairs, Kasai held in one arm against her shoulder, Kohimu cradled in the other soothingly. She just managed to throw Kagome a brief smile. "Yes, you don't know how right that is!"

Endnote: Okay, remember my question folks! I NEED to know...oh oh! Special Announcement: If anyone wants to make pictures illustrating the fanfic here (or any of my otherfics)that's definately okay by me, just say what inspired you, that's all I want, well, that and to see it if possible! (squees!) I LOVE hearing from everyone and knowing that my writing these things can make you guys feel good...brings a smile to my face and keeps me happy even when I'm bored or bummed...YAYS! Also I had someone ask about my Rin and Sesshomaru sequel...((grins) That story, in case you're wondering, I think I'll call it "You Are My Only One." I have to keep up with the tradition of naming them after songs you know!) I'm thinking and contemplating that story all the time...It's going to be alot easier to write that one though, so if I don't get this one going steadily the other would take over...and I figure that "Somebody" needs to be finished before I do too much else too, right? But Sesshy will appear at least briefly in this story too (don't worry though, you won't hate him like you did last time (girns))Also, out of curiosity, (this relates to the question I had to ask you guys too) would you guys be interested in reading a story about Inutaisho's parents? I have this question spinning in my head, like where did Inutaisho come from? Why is he so great when in the midst of the Inu group's adventures I've never heard of or seen another dog demon anywhere, even though they're supposed to be a "clan." And everybody knows about Inutaisho! What was his family like? Did he have siblings? That sort of thing...I just know I'd have fun fleshing out that hind story...(snickers)..anyway, write in guys and tell me, kay? THANK YOU!


	4. Departures and Arrivals

**Disclaimer:** Nope, I don't own Inuyasha...

**A/N:** AH! Like I've said my life has gotten pretty hectic, around another three weeks of it and then I'm free guys and gals! I promise! I SHOULD be doing my homework right now (sociology) but instead I'm updating this cuz I know you are waiting for it...it feels strange to me when I'm writing it, so I'm a little nervous...(coughs) okay, Sesshomaru is in this chapter, briefly. He won't play a huge role here, but to introduce the new character (who once again, could be either good or bad (grins)) I needed Sesshy...I think (I hope) you don't mind...I LOVED writing that section though...(grins) but this must be short...gotta go...(sorry, that was written like before dinner Thursday night and I'm writing this here and now Saturday after MORE play practice and LOTS of computer trouble...still doesn't work right at all! (dies) but I'm finally back...after this it's going to be more writing for me on this story...drop me a line...this story's still evolving so I always listen to comments and concerns (well I could do it easier of AOL worked but we can't always get what we want eh? At any rate I can still view my reviews via fanfic and online AOL even though it's not as cool as the software which refuses to work on my compy.) so don't be shy! I promise I don't bite...(winks) much...) Later! Enjoy!

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****Departures and Arrivals**

Kagome slipped on the blue jeans slowly, biting her lip in fear the whole way. The denim climbed past her knees easily, hiked its way toward her hips…passed over them and settled where they belonged reluctantly. She fought with the zipper and the button a little, grumbling to herself. Then she looked down at herself…and frowned.

_I'm still not quite small enough yet…_

Regretfully she slipped back out of them and instead pulled on some white pajama pants with bright yellow duckies on them and completed with a drawstring. _That_ was _far_ more comfortable…and since they would only be visiting her mother who'd care that she was wearing something _this_ casual? She tugged on her tennis shoes then and pulled on a light blue hoodie to keep her warm.

As she was tying her shoelaces she heard Inuyasha come into the bedroom—Koinu with him—she could hear the pup blubbering and whimpering to himself in his father's arms. By the way Inuyasha was walking, his feet slamming into the floorboards roughly, she could tell he was unhappy about something.

"Kagome!" he muttered behind her.

"Yes, Inuyasha?" she finished tying her last shoelace and stood up, turning to face her husband—and desperately tried to keep herself from bursting out in laughter.

Apparently while trying to play with his young son on the pup's level—which was the floor—the hanyou had come too close to Koinu, allowing the mischievous baby to reach out and grab hold of his father's dog ears. Now Inuyasha had come to Kagome, holding Koinu out to her awkwardly because the pup hadn't let go of his ears yet. His eyes past the pup's little mostly naked body—he was in nothing but a diaper—were begging her.

"Kagome, _please make him let go!"_

"Well, well, well…looks like he's my son too Inuyasha!" she laughed again then, so hard she bent over double holding her stomach.

"This _isn't funny!_" Inuyasha insisted, trying to hand her Koinu once more, but the pup, squealing with delight, pulled on his father's ears again, and Inuyasha growled and cursed under his breath. "_Please Kagome?"_

Still laughing, Kagome reached up to the pup and tweaked his own ears from behind. Distracted from torturing his father, Koinu let go of Inuyasha's ears and tried to reach out to touch Kagome instead, though now his father's hands restricted him and the pup, frustrated, began to whimper in warning.

"Oh no! Now he's going to cry!" Inuyasha frowned unhappily, "And I haven't even dressed him yet! We can't bring him to your mom looking like _that! _They'll think we're bad parents!_"_ he held Koinu out at arm's length for Kagome, who took the pup swiftly and began to rock him gently, immediately calming him.

"I'll dress him then, Inuyasha. But don't worry what they'll think—they'll be too busy seeing how cute he is to notice whether he's wearing clothes or not." she touched her nose to the pup's swiftly, giving him a short, sweet kiss. But when she pulled away she gasped in pain—Koinu had taken hold of her hair in his strong little fists and was holding on tight.

"Ow!"

Inuyasha cackled about then, gleefully watching as Kagome had her turn to be tortured now too. "Ha! See how it feels? Not so funny now huh?" he smirked, triumphantly.

Kagome shook her head as much as Koinu's grip would allow. "Inuyasha you're such a baby!" but she smiled through her slight pain.

He was still smirking at her, his amber gaze twinkling, "How you going to get out of this one? Hmm? You gotta ask for my help, don't you?"

"No." with that she reached one hand up to Koinu and tickled his stomach. The baby squealed, squirmed and let go of her hair without further argument. Kagome flashed a victorious smile at Inuyasha and then turned to find Koinu's clothes.

Behind her Inuyasha snorted, "Feh."

* * *

_"Lord Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru!"_

_it was Jaken, his bare, toad-like feet padding over the floor annoyingly. The Inuyoukai lord's lips winced slightly, the lower trying to hide beneath the upper one in a silent and miniscule sneer. He was **far** from being in the mood for Jaken's self-important flattering. _

"_Jaken." He acknowledged the toad coldly, but cursed him inwardly. It was just before dawn and the Inuyoukai Lord of the Western Lands was wearing a completely, unadorned white kimono of lavish silk, secured only loosely over his body—so loose was it that the lord's chest was half exposed, revealing golden, almost radioactive skin. It was cold like ice against his skin but in spite of the fabric's tendencies the lord's flesh itself was burning, his body reeling under his control. He'd been on his way to Rin's chamber, eager to warm her cool flesh with his own heat, anxious to smell her intoxicating, utterly female aroma...and then he'd change it, alter it with his own musky, powerful masculine scent. He wanted to walk by her later in the day and still smell himself on her…_**in**_ her…_(Ack! I've been hanging around a really flirtatious guy for too long...please don't be offended!)

_But Jaken had caught him before he could get that far, and now, had he been in his true form, his fur would've been bristling with annoyance and irritation, every little part of him alight with the desire to toss the toad far away and run straight to Rin. But he couldn't. The toad's scent carried with it an unusual demon's scent—Sesshomaru was suspicious that they had guests…_

"_Lord Sesshomaru!" the toad threw himself into an apologetic, desperate bow at his lord's feet, panting and mumbling under his breath for forgiveness and for his rudeness. All of this Sesshomaru ignored, instead he pressed straight onto the point. The sooner it was dealt with the sooner he could cure his appetite for Rin. _

"_Jaken, you have something important to tell me?" he kept his voice cool and calm, to encourage the little amphibious youkai to spill his story and be gone all the sooner. If Jaken were flustered the Inuyoukai might never get a straight story out of him before dawn. _

"_My lord, the guards have escorted a member of the dog demon clan into the castle!" he made nervous sounds to himself for a moment before plunging onward, "She demands to speak with you! She says she has urgent business!" _

_Sesshomaru felt a twinge of something close to disgust flicker through him, but it was minute. He ignored the emotion and showed nothing of it. "Tell her I shall meet her shortly." _

_Jaken looked stunned, his already enormous eyes seemed on the verge of explosion. "Really my lord?" _

"_Go, Jaken." He was losing patience, and Jaken, having served the Inuyoukai for many years, could see that easily. He jumped to his feet and scampered away, only mumbling, "Yes my lord!" over and over again as he pattered away. _

_Sesshomaru swiftly walked through his palace's halls, back the way he'd come until he entered his own room once more. He changed intohis typical white kimono with the red brightly decorating one shoulder, and blue adorning the sleeves.The Inuyoukai stepped briefly before a mirror and tightened his kimono to make himself look formally acceptable, then he quickly left the room, heading toward where guests were left to wait for an audience with the mighty Lord Sesshomaru. _

_As he walked he considered the dog demon clan's possible reasons for calling on him. Could it be war? Some eighty years ago they'd had the reappearance of the Panther demons to deal with. Inutaisho had proudly won that battle so long ago—thus it was only natural that his son should have a starring role in it, yes? But Sesshomaru's mouth tasted bitter when he remembered how few dog demons—his own cousins and other kin—had stepped up to help him. The Western Lands had been at stake—not the East, the North, or the South, or the Central Lands. Not the Northern Islands or the Southern Islands and their various territories. Thus the dog demons had not offered Sesshomaru help. _

_His fists clenched until the knuckles flashed white at the thought that followed immediately: **they helped Father, but not me. The dog demon clan adored Father but they could care less for my fate or me…**_

_Sesshomaru reached the door. Slowly, almost gracefully, he slid it open and stepped inside, closing the door again. He sensed, smelled, and heard the other demon in the room but didn't dare glance at her furtively. He wanted to outdo her—Inuyoukai were always about presentation. If he could intimidate her by his appearance only she would hold him in higher esteem—and perhaps leave him alone…_

"_Sesshomaru…" the voice was singsong-like and soft—it reminded Sesshomaru painfully of his mother's…but he forced the thought away and faced his kinswoman with a cold, unemotional expression. _

_She was wearing a silver and white kimono. The scene embroidered over its shimmering surface was of a bright pond surrounded by cherry trees, the branches swaying in a silver wind that swirled over the kimono from shoulders to feet. And in this wind there were thousands of tiny dotted, bright white snowflakes. The demon woman's hair was pinned high atop her head; exposing her long, sumptuous neck…the skin was white as the snowflakes on her exquisite kimono. _

_Yes, she really **did** remind him of his mother, perhaps she was from the same branch of the clan…_

_He watched the woman bow, daintily, like a blade of grass flowing in the wind. He couldn't be sure of her age—but by her scent he knew she was a mother, and therefore someone's mate, and not here to try and betroth herself to him. A little of his tension slipped away and he found it easier to return her bow then. _

"_I do not know you, lady." He greeted her, unemotionally. _

_When she looked up there was a smile in her eyes…in her pink eyes…it took Sesshomaru by surprise, but only briefly. He knew that a few branches of the dog demon clan pretty much all had pink eyes. They were albinos. In fact Inutaisho's line wasn't far removed from them—the white fur was clearly a link, but unlike the albinos Inutaisho's family had all had an eye color like gold, amber, or perhaps blue—not pink. But most white dog demons were, on the whole, albinos. _

"_I am Taikokajin." The demon woman bowed a second time, less formally, as though she were acknowledging herself. "I have come on a matter of grave importance…"_

"_I will not help you fight a war." Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes in suspicion, waiting for her to say he was all wrong. The Lord of the Westerns Lands was in no mood to beat around the bush this early in the morning...especially when Rin was still sleeping somewhere, her body cold and awating him to warm her..._

_Taikokajin's eyes showed a flickering of annoyance. She and Sesshomaru were too much alike on some level—they could sense it easily on the other, and as a result they were tense, and anxious to have their meeting end. Yet Taikokajin wasn't an angry or spiteful, or even cold demon normally. Her eyes were generally friendly and good-natured—though not when they were aimed at Sesshomaru, who was fast trying her patience. _

"_Well then in that case I have only come to tell you of an enemythat could threaten your pups and your pups' pups. I have—"_

"_I fear nothing. I fought the war with the Panther demons without your help, Taikokajin, without you or any of the rest of the clan. I can fight any enemy alone—my pups will be the safest living creatures on thisland as long as they remain in my castle, under my care. Your threats, Taikokajin, mean nothing to me, as does the clan." _

_The demon woman looked furious, Seshsomaru was sure that if her lavishly gorgeous kimono hadn't covered her hands he would've easily seen them balled into little fists of rage. He could've laughed in her face, but he made sure not to. Instead he waited arrogantly for her answer, wonderingif it would ever come at all…_

_Taikokajin narrowed her pink gaze at him and growled, audibly, "I have heard that your mate is a mortal woman…"_

_Sesshomaru felt a jolt run through him. Was she trying to threaten him? "What of it?" he murmured, forcing his expression to remain neutral and without emotion. _

"_Your pups will be hanyous then?" she was eying him carefully, as if searching his soul. _

"_That is irrelevant." _

"_No, it's not." Taikokajin snapped abruptly, and then, blinking as if confused at her outburst, she bowed, mumbling her apologies before explaining, "The enemy is seeking a hanyou from our clan. We believe they have also decided that it is Inutaisho's line that will provide the hanyou…" she seemed smug, as if her reasoning was pure and simple, the absolute and only solution, and that Sesshomaru would have to quail and break before it, but it wasn't meant to be. _

"_A hanyou you say, Taikokajin?" the rest of the clan was often so far removed from Inutaisho's doings so many years ago, Sesshomaru thought, that it was likely Taikokajin and her family, and many of their other various kin, had never realized that the famed hanyou Inuyasha was in fact an Inuyoukai like them, born of Inutaisho's line. As much as Sesshomaru hated his sibling, if telling Taikokajin about him would rid him of the bitch's presence—so be it!_ ( haha! funny pun! He can call her a bitch without insulting her considering that she's a dog demon...but it coyld also be an insult too...you get to decide (winks)).

"_Taikokajin, have you heard of the hanyou Inuyasha by any chance…?"_

* * *

It was still bright and early when Inuyasha, Kagome, and little Koinu left for the well. The task of watching over the estate fell to Miroku and Sango of course; who also looked after Shippo as well while the hanyou's new but still small family was away. 

Kagome had felt a little worried with how her family would feel when they saw Koinu. The pup didn't look like a normal baby born in 21st century Japan, _that_ was for sure! Kagome wasn't so worried about her mother's reaction as she was about her grandfather's. The old man had accepted Inuyasha after a time, and it hadn't bothered him much at all when he'd learned that they would soon become parents, making him a great-grandfather, but _seeing_ the baby with such obviously inhuman features? She wasn't sure how her grandfather would react. He would look into Koinu's sweet little face, searching for familiar Higurashi facial features, and he'd be looking all day…

But in the end, although both Kagome and Inuyasha were nervous about the impending meeting of families, it'd been Sango and Miroku who'd urged them to go forward. Neither the lecherous monk nor the demon slayer had any family left. With each child born to them they praised and thanked the gods and thought, wistfully, of their deceased families, of what they might be thinking from their places in the afterlife. But they could never _see_ the pride in their families' faces. They could never _hear_ the pride in their families' voices…but Kagome and Inuyasha could. How could they _not_ want that?

And so it was that Inuyasha, Kagome, and Koinu left that morning for the well. While they walked Inuyasha complained and scratched at the new kimono and haori that Kagome had bought him—years ago before Koinu had been born. The hanyou had grown so accustomed to wearing the same Fire Rat haori that when he was forced—and that was what Kagome had had to do to get him to wear the thing for her family—to wear something else he was completely uncomfortable. The new kimono and haori, as well as the matching pants, were white and gold, the color of the hanyou's eyes. A swirling pattern in the bright gold wove itself from Inuyasha's left shoulder to the left side of his waist on the white haori. At the cuffs of his pants there were more patterns of gold, they had reminded Kagome of fire when she'd first acquired them for her then mate…

But with how he complained about it now she was ready to turn around and go home just for the old, battered, worn, and stained Fire Rat robes! She threw him a warning glare when she heard him growling to himself in displeasure.

"Would you grow up already Inuyasha? Even Koinu handles his clothing better than you do!" as evidence she hiked the pup higher in her arms, letting him stare down his grumpy father with his adorable blue gaze.

The pup's clothing consisted of a tunic-like long sleeved shirt and pants, all of which were made of silk and obviously expensive. Inuyasha had insisted that Koinu wear his "Sunday best," so that if there were any chance of pleasing Kagome's grandfather they wouldn't fail by way of parenting the child in any way. When Inuyasha had insisted on Koinu looking sharp she'd suggested that he'd better do the same. But of course the hanyou was _very_ loath at the idea of abandoning his precious Fire Rat robes.

Inuyasha offered nothing more than, "Feh."

They reached the well without trouble. The snow was still light and crunched entertainingly beneath their feet as they walked. Passing through the trees Kagome noticed that not all of the trees had completely shed their leaves yet. She shook her head in wonderment, wondering which seasonal change was off—the trees or the first snows?

"I'll hold Koinu." Inuyasha announced abruptly, and reached for the pup.

"Okay…but why?"

"You know how smooth I am when I land." He cocked his head smugly at this, and she couldn't dismiss his words, _that_ was true, "Koinu might be jarred in your arms—then he'll cry for sure! That's the _last_ thing I want to happen." Inuyasha tended to hate the baby's cries more than he'd hated Naraku. Kagome wasn't sure if it was because the cries were hard on his ears or if it was simply that he hated seeing and hearing his son's unhappiness…or perhaps it was the tears, the act itself which bothered him, the hanyou hated it when she cried too…but at any rate she understood his reasoning at the moment. If Koinu were crying when her family first saw him it just wouldn't leave a good impression now would it?

She passed Koinu carefully to Inuyasha, and then watched as her husband leapt clear over the small wooden walls and straight into the blackness of well. Koinu squealed with excitement the whole way down, and Kagome grinned as she stepped off into nothingness after her husband and child.

Endnote: Kay, I gotta be quick and such...hope you liked it...next chapter is funny becuase Kagome and Inuyasha show Koinu to the Higurashi family...I had fun with that one too...but I'm working with rearrangment and such...so the chapters might be different than what I'm telling you now once they get to being posted...kay...till later, make sure you drop me a line!


	5. Family On All Sides

**Disc:** No I do not own Inuyasha, I only WISH that I did...

**A/N:** The long-awaited chapter...has it really beena week since my last update? my computer is still ridiculously slow and play practice still keeps me out really late...but I HAD to get this to you...I actually proof read this chapter, and added in a few spots just before it was uploaded...I think this chapter pretty much sums itself up...but I can't sit here and yab like I want to b/c if I do my computer will take one large smelly dump on me if you know what I mean? (dies as the words she types are added to the screen sooooo slowly...) I hope you like it...I'm getting somewhere with the plot now...shortly, AKA the next chapter, you will meet Taikokajin anew, at least Miroku and sango will anyway...later Inuyasha will deal with her...but I leave this to you: Is she good or bad? Another chapter in the nearby future will hint more...and THEN you'll have more to guess on, now she's nothing more than mystery...enjoy! Sorry I'm running late! Leave me a note! I LOVE hearing from you all!

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**Family On All Sides**

It was _huge_.

The village woman gaped as the thing—a dog by the looks of it she supposed—passed her by, walking in the broad daylight like some sort of god or spirit given shape. Surely it had to be something spun by her imagination…

She'd been hauling rice from the village's storehouse to her family's home that morning, as she did every few days, once their rice began to run low again. The village was quiet and tranquil that morning, perhaps more so than usual, but she didn't notice that, and if she had she wouldn't have cared. Yet as she rounded the bend, heading toward her family's hut, the rice buckets weighing down her arms and shoulders, the snow crunching beneath her feet, she'd frozen in shock, staring.

At the other end of the village's main street there was a large flicker of white in her sight. At first she blinked, thinking it was someone wearing a white cloak, or a wild horse perhaps with a white mane and tail and body, as clear and clean and white as the snow about the ground outside the village. But when the flickering, flashing movement failed to disappear from her eyes the girl felt shock and even fear bloom within her. Whatever the beast was it _wasn't_ normal, and she suspected it was carnivorous…

Shivering suddenly, though not from winter's chill, she watched, frozen in terror as the beast began to move toward her at a steady trot. It was large—nearly the size of a horse she thought, bright white or perhaps silver, walked on all fours, had a mane-like abundance of fur about its neck and down its back, and long, pointed floppy ears, covered in fur. Obviously it was a dog—though a very peculiar one, and certainly not one that she thought was _normal_. It was some sort of deity or supernatural being for sure…

Stricken, the girl dropped the buckets of rice as the beast approached and fell to her knees, bowing swiftly, deeply, until her forehead kissed the freezing snow. She mumbled forgiveness and desperate prayers, begging to be spared her insignificant mortal life.

"Please, Dog God, I beg you, spare our village and all who live in it, we have not committed any crimes against your kind…" her words were slurred together and barely audible, she might as well have whimpered to herself in fear for how coherent she was. Yet when she snuck a quick look toward the grand beast she saw it'd paused in its approach some ten feet shy of her, large fluffy white ears cocked and listening attentively. This close she could see that the strange, massive dog-god-beast had a shining and intelligent gaze—and its eyes were _pink_. Also, along its cheeks and near its mouth there were turquoise streaks, three on each side.

_No,_ it most certainly wasn't a simple dog!

As she stared up at it, shaking frantically, the massive canine parted its jaws in a doggy grin, exposing a big, lolling pinkish, fleshy tongue…yet also there were a_ lot_ of huge sharp, pointed and gleaming fangs in there…she cowered and shivered.

"Be gone beast!" a man's voice cried from somewhere up ahead, and the girl heard a thumping noise and saw the beast before her flinch. The eyes, disturbingly pink, swiveled about, the head and jaws turned away from her, looking up the village's small road, seeking its assailant. The man who'd cried out to save the girl was already brandishing another rock in his fist, taking aim fearlessly. Behind him another man was stepping out of his home, a spear in hand. Still others were coming, various weapons in their arms, ready for use.

The dog growled lightly, but only for a moment, and then the pink eyes flickered one last time to the girl…and she thought she saw a smile in them, amusement. But when she blinked it was gone—was it merely an illusion? Merely a whim her frightened mind had hallucinated?

She was destined never to know for at that moment the beast dashed past her harmlessly, its powerful, huge paws kicking up dirtied snow. Yet she noted that as it left, apparently fleeing the villagers, its tongue lolled as if it were full of silent laughter…

The beast reached the snowy forest at the other end of the village, entered the trees like a ghost—its huge paws didn't make so much as a whisper—and disappeared completely.

* * *

It was still before noon on the day that the hanyou's small family had left for Kagome's native era when something peculiar happened on the estate.

Sango was working in the kitchen, trying to get something edible cooked up for her family and Shippo before the sunlight was spent. She'd left Miroku and Shippo in charge of Kasai and the other "rug rats," as Inuyasha would've called their sons, had he been there. The demon slayer-turned domestic manager was busily cutting up pieces of chicken and seasoning them when Shippo scampered past her legs toward the front door, hurriedly. The kitsune's paws clicked over the hard floor as he moved, rushing by her. He was going _so_ fast in fact that he was unable to stop soon enough to avoid…_Thunk!_ Sango cringed in sympathy for the kit as he crashed head on into the wall next to the front door.

"Shippo!" Sango craned her neck to look back toward the sitting room where she could still hear Miroku, Kasai, Kohimu, and Tisoki still playing happily, "Why aren't you with Miroku and the children? You can't have any food until dinnertime…" but her voice died as she noticed that the kitsune wasn't showing the slightest interest in the food at all.

"Shippo?" she set the knife and the chicken slices down, moving to where Shippo was crouched, like a dog waiting to run outside, right by the door. "Is everything all right?"

"No Sango! There's someone out there…" closer to the kit now the demon slayer saw that his little nose was twittering, taking in the air, scenting something. Unlike Inuyasha, who tended to be loud and obnoxious while noticeably scenting something or someone, Shippo didn't snort. The little fox demon's nose worked efficiently and silently. He was quite comical actually, she thought absently, trying to force his nose into the crack between floor and door. It was clear that the kit smelled someone outside. This behavior he sometimes showed to Kagome and Inuyasha when they returned, or to Sango and Miroku and the children. It almost reminded Sango of her little brother Kohaku's little pet dog that'd always waited for their father so eagerly when he returned from his travels, bearing little slices of demon giblets to their miniature guard dog. As far as she knew the kit wouldn't show such eagerness for a stranger, so…

"Is it Mayuko?" Sango reached for the door and started to slide it open, wondering if the housekeeper had decided to come and visit them after all…

"NO!" Shippo shouted abruptly in fear and leapt behind her leg, cowering, as the door slide open, letting in a cold draft and a view of the estate's gardens, the trees now bare of leaves and covered in frost and snow…

And in the middle of the white snow, between the trees, like a terrible, and eerie phantom, stood a massive dog, staring at them…

Sango's breath stopped in her throat, her heart was seized in her chest, skipping a beat in sudden horror. Her mind groped, desperate, thinking…_hiraikotsu…_she felt Shippo shuddering and shivering with terror behind her calves, noticed the chill from the wintry outside…

The grip of panic left her then and Sango's body stiffened, filling with pride and courage. She had faced such things before—her family betrayed and slaughtered before her very eyes, being buried alive, the discovering that she was the only survivor from her whole village, and last but not least losing her little brother to their arch enemy and never recovering him again. Yes, she knew full well what hardship was, she knew the cruelty that life was capable of throwing at her…but she had survived and persevered.

"Shippo, call Miroku and get my hiraikotsu, _now…_" she ordered, her voice stiff with fear, but steady and without a waver. She felt the kitsune stir and start to draw away from her, whimpering but obeying her orders.

The beast before her seemed to grin sinisterly, enjoying their fear. Its tongue lolled out, bright pink and healthy. The teeth gleamed whiter than the snow. It was smirking at her, taunting her!

"Leave now, or I promise that I'll make you pay, Sesshomaru…" yet even as she spoke Inuyasha's dreaded older half-brother's name she felt a sting of doubt. The creature before her didn't act as she imagined Sesshomaru would in his true demonic form—and the markings were wrong. Instead of the two pinkish stripes on each cheek this dog demon had _three_ on each side, and they were _turquoise,_ not pink. The creature had no resemblance to Sesshomaru's bipedal humanoid form at all—except that it was bound in fluffy whitish fur…

The dog-like demon before her cocked its head, as if perplexed, but with the tongue still lolling the beast appeared incredibly comical. Had Sango not been shaking with terror she would've laughed until the tears flowed. Instead the frightened, and unprepared demon slayer slammed the sliding door shut and whirled round, seeking hiraikotsu. She screeched once in surprise when she nearly tripped over Shippo's body as the clumsy kitsune scrambled to get out of the way. Her cries immediately brought her husband's worried voice from the sitting room.

"Sango? Is everything all right?"

"No! Miroku! I need you to hide the children!" even as she reached the doorway to the sitting room where her two sons, her husband, and the littlest and only girl, Kasai, were sitting about, playing, all of them heard a bone-chilling howl from outside the house. It was like the cry of a lone wolf or coyote that's come upon a wounded animal—easy prey. It sent shivers down both Sango and Miroku's backs at once.

"Sango, what's going on?" Miroku's voice told her that he was preparing for the worst.

"There's a demon outside…"

"A wolf demon? Is it Koga?"

Kohimu, older and more learned in the teachings of his parents, suddenly looked _very_ excited. A childish grin spread over his innocent face, "Mama! Is it true! A demon's outside! Are you going to fight it? Can I watch! _Please_!"

His parents were momentarily horrified, but Miroku was fast on his feet when it came to his role as a father. "You're too young." He lied swiftly and, with a meaningful look to Sango, he grabbed Kasai, who was crawling on the floor nearby, into his arms and tugged both boys with him down the hallway toward the bedrooms.

Once Miroku and the boys were on their way Sango rushed to one corner of the sitting room where she'd had her hiraikotsu leaning for months now. Such a trusted and much used weapon was never stored out of the way—Sango saw to that. Off and on she'd had a need for it in the past, even as a mother or housewife. When she and Miroku had set about to rebuild the demon slayers' village, before Kohimu had been born, Sango had used the bone boomerang to chop down trees for timber or firewood. And, in between pregnancies, she was _still_ a professional demon slayer, well known and renowned far and wide.

With hiraikotsu in hand she turned quickly and rushed toward the door again, her heart pounding. With some surprise she noticed that Shippo was still in the kitchen, his nose and tail quivering. He reminded her, oddly enough, of a frightened rabbit more than a fox.

"Go with the boys Shippo…protect them." she ordered the kit, giving him a nice excuse to leave, but to her shock the kitsune shook his head.

"No."

"No?" Sango reached for the door, ready to slide it open. She didn't have time to be surprised by the young youkai's strange change in behavior, yet the question slipped out anyway, "Why?"

"Because the demon smells like Inuyasha."

_What?_ She did remember that Shippo had acted as if it was a friend and not a foe that had come to the estate when he'd rushed to the door—perhaps the scent had tricked him somehow…?

But she couldn't think about that—her fingers clasped the door and she slid it open easily, lifting hiraikotsu into the air, ready and primed to throw. She leapt through the narrow space and, sensing where the intruder was, she let the boomerang fly…

Two clawed hands caught the weapon in mid air, halting its progress easily. In a moment the bone fell to the ground, harmless…

But Sango was too confused and shocked by the new and completely different youkai that now faced her to even notice that her attack had been thwarted. A tall, thin, silver-haired, pink-eyed _woman_ stood before her, staring her down with a calm but slightly smug expression…

_She looked just like Sesshomaru…_

* * *

"Kagome!"

Mrs. Higurashi enveloped her daughter in a huge, warm, welcoming bear hug. Standing just behind the mother and daughter, Inuyasha tried to fight the crimson that was stealing over his face. How long had it been since Kagome had come back to visit her mother? Longer than usual no doubt…the last time she'd visited at all had been before Koinu was born—and the pup was several months old by now! Mrs. Higurashi had probably been worried sick!

Nervously Inuyasha resisted the urge to fidget and squirm, instead he held Koinu tighter to him, and in response the pup squealed, which made Mrs. Higurashi open her eyes while she was hugging Kagome and…

"Oh my heavens!" the words were high pitch and squealed. Inuyasha cringed and winced with each, sure that she was about to curse her daughter's choice of mate and husband on account of what a uniquely _in_human grandchild it'd made for her…but as usual he was wrong…

"This is Koinu? He's simply _adorable_ Kagome!" Mrs. Higurashi abandoned her daughter's embrace and reached almost demandingly for the child in Inuyasha's arms. For a moment the hanyou had the instinct to turn tail and run from her, growling. But it was only for the slightest of moments—then he regained his senses, swallowed nervously, and handed over the baby.

Mrs. Higurashi and Koinu stared into each other's faces, and both were silent for a moment. Kagome's mother's face was bright and ecstatic at the sight of her first grandchild, while Koinu was looking mighty uncertain about the unfamiliar face he was staring into…the pup's ears twitched in nervousness and he made a whimpering puppy-like sound in the back of his throat, a precursor to tears.

Mrs. Higurashi immediately broke out into a very loud "Ahh!" and then she cuddled the pup close to her body…which was the _right_ thing to do, for now the pup was able to take in her scent and realize that she smelled like his mother—therefore, instinct told him, she wasn't likely to hurt him.

The new grandmother looked from her daughter just behind her to her son-in-law in front of her, face beaming. "He's absolutely _precious!_" she turned a smirk to Inuyasha, "I see that he inherited your ears…lots of ear tweaking for him in the future then!"

Inuyasha scowled with instant sympathy.

They stepped inside from the porch and into the warmth of the house with Mrs. Higurashi still crooning lovingly to the pup. Inuyasha and Kagome fell behind with one another. The hanyou threw his wife a few nervous glances, and was reassured by her expression—wide eyed, beaming just as her mother was—that everything was going fine. Kagome noticed his nervousness, and, thoroughly amused, she slipped her hand into his, interlocking her fingers together with the hanyou's. A little smile of pride bloomed on her face.

Inuyasha felt his muscles relax at the sight of her smile and he even allowed a small smile of his own. Their clasped hands squeezed together tightly in comfort and confidence…

And then there was a screeching voice from in the living room as Kagome's grandfather caught sight of the baby. "He has dog ears!" the old man shrieked, surprised.

"Yes—just like Inuyasha!" Mrs. Higurashi's voice answered, ripe with amusement. Koinu's ears simply tickled her pink. "Your great-grandson has Inuyasha's puppy ears!"

"How will I explain that!" the old man demanded, his voice becoming a little annoyed. Apparently Mrs. Higurashi's simple and blissful exuberance wasn't appreciated.

Inuyasha and Kagome stepped into the room then, the hanyou noticeably lagging behind his wife. Kagome's grandfather was holding the squirming pup uncomfortably. He was glancing from the baby's face to Mrs. Higurashi's in something close to panic. "How will he ever go to school!"

Kagome shook her head, "Gramps!" she sighed, "He's not going to school _here…_"

Her grandfather sighed, and was about to protest when Koinu, who was already uncertain about Mrs. Higurashi holding him instead of Kagome or Inuyasha, began to squall. In the bickering between the adults in the room the pup's telltale whimper warnings had been missed, and _now_ he was mad…

The old man paled and fidgeted nervously with the tiny child, trying to shift him, hold him closer and yet still be gentle. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry little guy…" when he brought the pup closer to his face Koinu reached for him fussily—and grabbed hold of his nose.

"Ow!" the old man pulled Koinu forcefully off, rubbing his nose absently and giving the baby a look of slight resentment. Back in his lap the pup was _not_ happy.

The baby's cries increased, becoming both more intense as well as loud…Kagome's grandfather now appeared distinctly uncomfortable, even desperate…his eyes flew to Mrs. Higurashi, drew a blank, and then pleadingly met with his granddaughter's.

Kagome stepped forward and scooped Koinu up into her arms, cuddling him close. The pup's cries continued for a moment while the old man and Mrs. Higurashi watched, but it wasn't long before they began to diminish into small whimpers of protestation. Inuyasha, in the doorway, was agitated, his ears folded backward and his eyebrows lowered sternly over his eyes. When the pup didn't stop crying completely he stepped forward and stroked his son's silver-haired, fuzzy little head. The whimpering immediately ceased when Inuyasha's familiar and protective scent enclosed the pup and he knew for certain that he was back in his parent's loving arms.

Mrs. Higurashi, watching the display, looked as if she might cry with happiness. She was overflowing with mirth at her new status as a grandmother. But the new great-grandfather looked uncomfortable at it, though under that exterior his eyes shone with something that might have been approval or admiration. But, being a crotchety old man, or at least playing the part of one, meant that he couldn't openly show the emotions, whether they were there or not. At least not _immediately…_

"Just wait until Sota sees his new nephew! I remember how impressed he was with Inuyasha!" Mrs. Higurashi suddenly covered her mouth with one hand and laughed, "Kagome, you remember how Inuyasha was Sota's hero when he was a boy?"

Kagome threw her hanyou a quick smirk, which Inuyasha pretended not to notice—he suddenly found the floor intensely interesting. Turning her smirk to her mother then Kagome nodded, "Yes, I remember that quite well…"

"I had a thought Kagome…I'm sure he'll want to be Koinu's idol and hero while he grows up—you know, good old Uncle Sota…"

Sitting at the table and now looking much more at ease, the old man snorted, "_Uncle_ Sota had better be careful with his girlfriends or soon he'll be _Daddy_ Sota…then what would I tell all the college girls with crushes on him when they called, hmm?"

"I'm sure you'll tell them that he's studying, as he will be, Grandpa." Mrs. Higurashi warned.

"Hmpf! The only thing that boy _ever_ studies is female anatomy!" the old man resolutely huffed and picked up his newspaper, burying his nose into it, discouraging any further protests to his said opinion on his second-born grandchild.

Mrs. Higurashi turned her attention to the couple and her new grandson again, her face beamed with enthusiasm all over again. "Kagome honey, Inuyasha dear, won't you come to the kitchen and we can sit down and have some tea?"

Kagome glanced to Inuyasha and saw that he seemed to have finally relaxed a little. One of the hanyou's hands was still on his son's head, stroking and soothing the little child into a hypnotic nap…his other hand however, claws and all, was drawing little circles up and down her back, caressing her. Kagome repressed the shudders and shivers and offered her mother a simple nod.

"Sure Mom, we'd love to!"

Mrs. Higurashi grinned as she started to walk toward the kitchen, her daughter and son-in-law following. "You _must_ tell me how labor went for that little babe there…how did you ever manage it in the past?" worry had crept into Mrs. Higurashi's voice and Kagome was struck by the realization that her mother had actually had concerns over whether her daughter had even survived labor in the Feudal Era. Guilt swarmed through her as she realized that her mother had been waiting _months_ to learn whether her daughter had lived or died!

"It was…" she laughed nervously, "Hard."

"I'll bet! I had painkillers and modern technology…"

Behind her Inuyasha snickered, "Yeah, and Kagome didn't even have a midwife!"

"What?"

Endnote: Well, did you like the family interactions? Yes, no? Write in and tell me and maybe I'll make more...I mean there are some already written but if you HATE it I can change it...so write in and tell me how I'm doing, kay? THANK YOU to all who take the time to tell me what they feel and to tell me they like what I'm doing (and criticism is welcome too! Anything!) Hope you enjoyed...gotta go before the computer eats all I've written and flushes me down the toilet...bye!


	6. The Pink Eyed Demon

**Disclaimer:**No I don't own Inuyasha...

**A/N:** Okay, I think that the first bits of ths chapter should answer ALOT of your questions...but of course, you must ask, is what she says right? Is it the truth? Is she good or bad? That's for me to know and you to find out! hehehe...remember to review, now that I have my computer back in decent order I can do Internet Ex. and AOL at once! YAY! Answering your questions will be ALOT easier now! Anyway, enjoy!

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****The Pink-Eyed Demon**

The pink-eyed gaze of the youkai intruder seemed to burn into Sango. The demon slayer felt as if she'd been stunned by it, rendered completely paralyzed. Her hiraikotsu was now lying useless on the ground at the demon woman's feet. What was she supposed to do now?

The female inuyoukai was dressed elaborately in a yellow kimono with a pink obi. The soft pastels of the garment seemed to glow, making the woman appear heavenly somehow. Red orchids danced from the collar to the waist where the pink obi shimmered. The obi was covered with delicately embroidered Japanese characters that spelled out several foreign names to the demon slayer, well; she _assumed_ that they were names anyway…

Behind her she heard heavy and familiar footsteps—_Miroku…_for a moment she cursed the fact that his wind tunnel had closed up when Naraku died…though if that hadn't happened she doubted the monk would've lived long enough to father all three of their children. Yet the monk was still valuable in a fight. Two was always better than one…

But the children… 

There were too many conflicts within her, too many decisions to make, her mind felt muddled…and then the demon woman spoke, bringing the demon slayer's mind and attention back to the present threat. The demon's voice was soft, much as Sango remembered Sesshomaru's voice, but unlike Inuyasha's brother this demon was clearly female—her voice was light and higher in pitch, it seemed to float. It was a beautiful sound, Sango thought, any mortal woman could've been jealous of it. The creature's singing voice was probably even more enviable…but the words that came out of her mouth made the demon slayer blink in surprise.

"Where is the hanyou son of Lord Inutaisho?"

Sango didn't answer; she held her tongue. In her experience it wasn't wise to answer the questions demons answered.

Behind her Miroku's staff jangled, and the monk pushed past his wife, trying to use his body as a shield, "Who is it that asks?" he demanded.

The demon woman narrowed her eyes, though the expression didn't seem to be one of disgust or anger; it was unreadable. After a moment she bowed slightly, taking both the monk and the demon slayer by surprise. Such respect from a _demon!_ It just wasn't heard of, unless the demon wanted something _badly_, or perhaps, if it was looking to take its enemies off guard, or to gain their trust only to stab them in the back…

"My name is Lady Taikokajin…" she nearly whispered this as she rose from her bow, making both the monk and the demon slayer lean forward to hear her, "And I have come in search of the second-born hanyou son of Lord Inutaisho."

"Why?" Sango ventured, her voice wavering slightly from behind Miroku.

The beautiful youkai blinked once, her eyelids glittered an amazing bluish pink. Her eyes seemed to show amusement, "Well, first I must know if this is his estate or not. You are mortals…demons do not share such matters as the one I am here to discuss with the hanyou with creatures such as yourselves. It does not concern you." she looked from one human to the other, pink gaze wide and innocent, "_Is _this the hanyou son's residence or not?"

They didn't have much of a choice, and despite her strange behavior and her obvious resemblance to Sesshomaru, the demon woman seemed to be relatively harmless…Miroku made his decision and spoke out before Sango could.

"No, do you see any hanyous around here, demon?" he shouted, gesturing with his staff around them, to the cherry trees with their empty and frozen branches. "Now, if you'll excuse us, my wife and I—"

The demon woman, apparently named Taikokajin, chuckled and shook her head. Her long, silvered hair rippled and shimmered in the weak winter sunlight. "Did you think you could lie to an Inuyoukai?" she laughed again, making husband and wife wince in fear and curse Miroku's missing wind tunnel, "I can _smell_ a hanyou here…" as if to prove it she lifted her nose to the wind and sniffed daintily, much as Inuyasha did while tracking something on the breeze. With that sniff finished she looked to the couple again, her pink eyes wide in surprise.

"There's more than that here!" she sniffed again, almost gleefully, making Miroku and Sango stare at her in consternation, "There's a kitsune youkai! A young one…and…the hanyou son of Inutaisho of course. His scent lingers everywhere in this yard, in this garden, on the walls, in the house…" she sniffed again and her eyes popped open wide and a glittering, pretty smile spread over her lips.

Miroku and Sango stared at the demon woman, their mouths agape. Was it a trick? She looked so much like Sesshomaru, even said she was an Inuyoukai, but she was kind, charming, friendly, and even respectful…but it was likely all an act. Some demons went to elaborate lengths to trick their enemies before making the killing move and springing the trap. The thrill was in the hunt, not in the kill. Perhaps Taikokajin was one of these sadistic youkais…

"Oh! My!" she looked to Miroku and Sango and smiled charmingly, "There's a _pup_ in your household!"

The demon slayer and the monk stiffened at the same time.

Miroku's knuckles whitened as he gripped his staff. "What do you want with Inuyasha?" he snapped, narrowing his eyes threateningly and ignoring the mentioning of Koinu completely.

Taikokajin seemed to pale at his tone, as if she couldn't understand why he was so hostile. "I have come to talk with him only." She offered a small bow, as if to appease the monk although surely she had no fear of him, "I didn't even know of his existence until just a day ago!" she blinked at them thoughtfully for a moment, and then asked, "His name is Inu-Yasha you say?" she chuckled, "Sesshomaru only told me the hanyou's name once and already I've forgtotten it! How apt the name is though…it's certainly original in comparison to Sesshomaru." Here she snorted slightly and looked away, as if recalling something.

The couple were now completely lost, and their faces expressed this clearly to the pink-eyed Inuyoukai woman before them. Softly she sighed and cleared her throat, trying again. "Inutaisho was a very obscure youkai…" she began only to be interrupted by Sango.

"What do you mean you didn't know he existed? Who told you? Why should you care?"

Taikokajin looked annoyed now, though exactly why wasn't clear—whether it was that she'd been interrupted by a mortal or because the questions bothered her. After a moment she sighed and answered them anyway, "I mean that I only knew that Inutaisho had one son—Sesshomaru! And as far as who told me—well that was Sesshomaru of course! Inutaisho's family was always quiet and obscure…"

"Wait…" Miroku interrupted her; again, thinking hurriedly, "You didn't answer the last question. Why should you care about Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, and Inutaisho? _Who_ are you?"

Taikokajin frowned for the first time, her face wrinkling, "You mortals are _so_ tiresome!" she growled, seeming suddenly _a lot_ more like an Inuyoukai to Miroku and Sango, "I am their cousin. We are of the same clan."

_That_ was believable it was true—she looked a lot like Sesshomaru, but it still didn't answer the questions that Miroku and Sango _really _wanted answered. Why was she there? Could they trust her? What did she need to talk to Inuyasha for?

Lady Taikokajin paused then, her face's animated appearance dying away and becoming serious. She sniffed the wind and her expression darkened, fell. "He and the pup aren't here are they? They've left…" she sighed, "I'm smelling only memories…" she looked sharply to Sango and Miroku and asked, "When will the pup and the hanyou return?"

"We don't really know…" Miroku began hesitatingly, only to be interrupted by Sango readily.

"Inuyasha left with his wife and son to build a second estate in the east…this one wasn't big enough for him. We're his housekeepers."

Taikokajin's eyes narrowed for a moment, apparently she suspected Sango's words were false, but she made no mention of it, only sighed. "Well then I guess I will be going." She bowed her head slightly, and thanked them in a quiet and soft voice that was almost hypnotic. A moment later the massive white dog replaced the woman once more. It didn't pause even a moment before it dashed back toward the gate, traveling fast, with leaps and bounds. In a second it'd scaled the wall and was gone, nothing more than a confusing memory…

"Well!" Miroku turned round slowly and faced Sango, "That was _very_ strange…"

"Yes, but I'm glad she's gone."

"I'll bet she's going to come back…Inuyasha's never been lucky enough to miss it when some demon decides to make his life miserable. Chances are when she comes back we should be in hiding, just in case she has a grudge against liars…" he smirked at the demon slayer and she frowned crossing her arms over her chest.

"What else was I supposed to do! I threw hiraikotsu at her and she _caught_ it!"

Miroku shrugged and hugged her quickly, sighing with a surge of relief, "I'm just glad we're still alive!"

* * *

"So…" Mrs. Higurashi began cautiously, glancing toward Kagome furtively, "…When do you and Inuyasha plan on giving Koinu a sibling?" 

The crimson stain that spread over Kagome's cheeks was immediate. Mrs. Higurashi had a way of burrowing straight to whatever topic would make Kagome flinch in embarrassment. It was just her way of cutting through the formalities and small talk when she sensed a larger yet underlying, quieter subject. She despised the thought of Kagome having _anything_ that couldn't, or wouldn't be shared with her. After all, what good was a mother who couldn't advise her daughter?

"Mom!" Kagome whined, rolling her eyes. Why was it that everyone asked that question? As if one pup hadn't been hard enough work! She quickly looked around her to make sure that Inuyasha or her grandfather hadn't overheard her mother's words. "Koinu's still very young…"

Mrs. Higurashi was smirking quietly and nodding through her mischievous expression. "And you thought you couldn't get pregnant…"

_Now_ Kagome's face was livid red. "_Mom!"_ she hissed, "Stop it!"

Mrs. Higurashi laughed gleefully. "Okay, okay. If you insist…" she rose from the kitchen table and went to the refrigerator, taking out some vegetables to begin slicing in preparation for dinner. After a moment of recovering herself from embarrassment Kagome stood up as well and started to help her mother, wordlessly.

It was about 6 o'clock in the evening. The Higurashi family was waiting for their youngest member (second youngest if Koinu was counted) to return home. Sota's whereabouts were questionable, he had been finished with his classes since early that afternoon, but Kagome's mother was certain that the boy would be home in time for supper. Her reasoning, of course, was that he had no money to buy food so he had to come home for it, or so she hoped. Sometimes Sota's resourcefulness proved her wrong…

Inuyasha and Koinu were in Kagome's old room, sleeping peacefully. While in the 21st century Inuyasha generally slept deeply and peacefully—it was like a vacation or a muscle relaxant to the hanyou. Kagome's scent lulled him into tranquility first, and then her bed, being softer than most things in the Feudal Age by far, dragged him to sleep. Sometimes Kagome suspected that that was the real reason he'd come to get her in the latter days of their shard-hunting and Naraku-chasing. It'd not been because he'd worried so much or was possessive—it was the lure of her family life and the fluffiness of the bed. There'd been many a night while she was trying to study for tests in high school that Inuyasha had fallen asleep on her bed while "watching" her and she'd had to sleep on the floor.

Now, nearly a decade later, and what seemed worlds away, Kagome had shared the tiny bed with her hanyou a few hours after they'd arrived for a family visit while they'd napped and she'd nursed Koinu in the afternoon. Later with Koinu crashed out on Inuyasha's chest, Kagome had found both the pup and the half-demon so deeply asleep that she'd snuck from the room to avoid waking them. Downstairs she'd discovered that her grandfather had left to take care of the shrine and a few of the artifacts there, and Sota was still MIA. So, determined to be useful and not a guest in her own home, she'd resigned herself to cooking with her mother.

And then…

"Mom!" called a familiar voice from the front door, "I'm home for dinner!"

Mrs. Higurashi and Kagome exchanged brief glances at the sound of the young man's voice, they were relieved that he'd finally come home. Setting aside the food preparations, Mrs. Higurashi turned on her heel and left the kitchen, a light smile of anticipation playing over her features. "Welcome home Sota!" she cried, eagerly, "Guess who's come to visit!"

Kagome followed swiftly on her mother's heels so that by the time they'd entered the room just as Sota was trying to come up with an answer. He saw his sister and blinked. "Kagome?"

"Hello Sota!" she smiled a little awkwardly, feeling miles away from her brother, who was still clearly so rooted in the 21st century, and mentally so much younger than she was.

"Kagome!" Sota stepped forward more eagerly then and enveloped his older sister in a strong bear hug. When they'd separated he immediately looked down at her flattened middle and asked, "Was it a boy like Inuyasha said it'd be?"

Kagome nodded, "We named him Koinu."

Sota grinned, for a moment the boy that he'd once been several years ago flickered in his smile, and Kagome felt a wave of nostalgia take her momentarily, but it was broken the moment her brother asked, "Did he get Inuyasha's ears?" the smirk in her brother's gaze was blatantly obvious.

"Come and see silly!" Kagome chuckled, "He's your nephew after all!" she and Sota, followed closely by Mrs. Higurashi, walked to the stairs and then up to Kagome's room. At the threshold Kagome opened it cautiously, hoping not to wake her husband and their pup…but as she inched the door open wider, and the bed became visible, she saw that Inuyasha was awake already, but he hadn't gotten up yet. The hanyou was still lying on Kagome's bed on his back, with Koinu sleeping on his chest. The little pup's ears, fingers, toes, arms and legs were jerking reflexively in a dream as Inuyasha watched over him, amber eyes soft and full of warmth.

Beside Kagome Sota inhaled sharply and chuckled, "He looks just like Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha's ears and eyes both turned to his wife's little brother at the same time. He frowned, irritated by Sota's rather loud voice…and, confirming the hanyou's glare; Koinu began whimpering as he woke from his sleep. Inuyasha frowned at the infant's cries but casually stroked the baby's head, and patted his little back. The pup was comforted by this contact and his whimpering ceased, instead it became a sound akin to purring.

"He sounds like a cat!" Sota announced, stepping into the room, hesitantly, despite his obvious fascination. His gleaming eyes were caught between Koinu's tiny form and the much larger, much more imposing shape that the pup was resting on—Iinuyasha.

"Would you like to hold him, Sota?" Kagome queried, restraining her sniggling laughter at the sight of such curiosity in her brother's expression. Immediately Sota looked between his sister and Inuyasha's grouchy face, eagerly nodding, yet also cautious: Inuyasha didn't look exactly friendly. The hanyou reminded Sota of a guard dog standing careful watch over a meaty soup bone.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha protested, sitting up swiftly but carefully, shifting Koinu to his lap as he went, "Are you sure…" he threw Sota an uncertain look, clearly doubtful of the youth's ability as far as babies went. In his arms Koinu squealed happily and clutched at his father's clothes greedily, distracting Inuyasha for a moment as he tickled Koinu, making the pup squeal and giggle before the calmed purring began again. Sota watched the exchange as if Koinu were _his_ son and not his sister's and the hanyou's.

In a moment Inuyasha looked back to Kagome's younger brother, his expression very stern. "Sota," he murmured awkwardly, "Are you sure? I mean—be _very_ careful." The words all seemed to come out of the hanyou's mouth in a frustrated rush, a growl even—his ears had folded backward. He clearly didn't want to resign himself to the fact that Sota, who he knew was a tad clumsy, had a right to hold his pup—and worse still, if he didn't hand Koinu over Kagome would probably sit him.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome hissed, irritated with his over-protectiveness of their son, "Sota is Koinu's _uncle_…" Yes, just as Inuyasha had thought…

"Yeah, well Koinu's _other_ uncle isn't trustworthy you know!" Inuyasha growled stubbornly, but even as he spoke the hanyou was rising to his feet and handing Koinu to Sota, however reluctantly. His eyes held a silent threat that Sota hardly noticed in the shock of receiving the pup.

Awkwardly the new uncle held the strange, dog-eared bundle in his arms, grinning rather stupidly, and yet at once genuinely at the infant. Koinu squirmed and fidgeted restlessly, immediately noticing and taking in Sota's changed scent and becoming uneasy with the loss of his father's familiar fragrance.

"Kagome!" Sota suddenly shouted; beaming, "He's got _blue_ eyes!" he looked between the pup's parents, grinning, "That's really _rare!_ And…" he paused, squinting into the tiny child's face, "I think he has your lips Kagome! And your chin Inuyasha…"

Koinu started to whimper warningly, fussing. His little face crinkled into frustration and unhappiness, then the tears started to form in his tiny, squinted, and clearly upset blue eyes…Sota's smile fell and he made shushing noises and began rocking the pup, which quieted him a little, but not enough to appease Inuyasha's instant wrath and protection.

"Hand Koinu here." Inuyasha growled, reaching demandingly for the pup. Sota relinquished his hold quickly, giving Koinu to Inuyasha again. The hanyou sighed the moment he had Koinu in his arms, still whimpering and fussing, and looked up to Kagome, "He's hungry."

"Oh no…" Kagome moaned as Inuyasha came to stand beside her and hand Koinu to her in preparation for feeding. The moment the pup was in his mother's arms, taking in her scent, which he instinctively associated with food and shelter, he quieted significantly. His tiny fists waved restlessly through the air though, seeking to keep his mother's attention and hopefully extract some food from her…

But Mrs. Higurashi interrupted then, saying, "Why don't you try bottle feeding Kagome? With how often you've told me the little brute gets hungry it'd be a relief to both you and Inuyasha!"

Kagome stared at her mother thoughtfully, but even as she thought about the possibility Mrs. Higurashi and Sota could both see the relief growing in her eyes like an infectious disease, spreading like yawns in a crowded room. Inuyasha, on the other hand, was confused.

"Bottle feeding?" he barked, "What's that?"

"Instead of breastfeeding…" Mrs. Higurashi tried to explain, curtly, but she could easily see that that told the hanyou just about nothing. Considering that it was a delicate subject Mrs. Higurashi decided to shrug the matter off. She waved one hand through the air dismissively. "Never mind it Inuyasha, it's a good thing, trust me." She turned to look at Kagome, "Well, do you want to see if we can get him to take a bottle?"

Kagome nodded eagerly. The thought had occurred to her more than once that Koinu would still be taking his food in the form of milk while he was _teething_…she had seen the little claws growing at his fingertips, still small and pliable now, but quickly becoming tiny instruments of torture. In his little mouth then…she shuddered to imagine the little pup's fangs—she knew from experience that the fangs were markedly unpleasant. There'd been times when Inuyasha—half demon as he was, and therefore _so_ much more powerful than she was physically—had lost control in the heat of a moment…she'd sported the scratches and bite marks to prove it too!

Thinking about that made Kagome's face burn abruptly and she cleared her throat, avoiding her mother's eyes, focusing on Koinu instead. The pup was fussy. His tiny, newly clawed fingers reached for her shirt, plucked in the area of her breasts…Kagome's face burned all over again—Sota and Inuyasha were watching…and the hanyou certainly was having trouble holding back his smirk. She wanted to smack him but restrained herself.

"Yeah, Mom, that sounds like a _great_ idea…"

"Hey Kagome what's to blush about?" the hanyou teased her long before she'd finished her sentence; the smirk on his face was begging her to challenge him. But Kagome stoutly ignored her husband and instead continued to keep Koinu settled. Inuyasha, losing interest apparently in his attempt at embarrassing his wife further, yawned and turned his amber gaze away from Kagome's blushing face to Mrs. Higurashi, "Are we going to have steak?"

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Endnote: THANK you to all reviewers! With your help this story has almost reached 100 (it's less than 20 shy of it!) in less than seven chapters! (SQUEE!)

Onto thanks and question answering:_kirarakitty_ (Back in "So much for the Hanyou's..." I mentioned (I think) a note about how I found some interesting research/discoveries on hybrids. They don't pass on their genes like you or I do/will(IF they can reproduce at all!). KoinuSHOULD (You're right!) not have ears, or silver hairfor that matter. He's TOO demon-like...Inu should've passed on his genes evenly (i.e. the pup should have gotten a haploid sex cell from Inu with 1/4 demon genes (Inutaisho's) and 1/4 human genes (Izayoi's) to make up his half of Koinu's DNA with Kagome's full human genes) but he didn't. Hybrids can pass on traits unevenly. I found a story about a ginny (female cross between a donkey and a horse) that was fertile being bred to a male donkey. The resulting foal should've looked like a donkey, right? Long ears, smaller, you know, a jackass (coughs, pardon that! I'm stupid! Stupid pun) but it looked like a horse. The ginny hadn't passed on her donkey genes to the foal, mostly she passed her horse genes. So the baby wasn't 1/4 horse, 3/4 donkey, it was something else, almost like a hybrid all over again. That's what I made happen to Koinu to give him dog ears. Dominance in the traits could still make my theory all wrong, but it was so cool that I had to use it...I encourage you to do a search and try to find out more for yourself, it's really cool, and chances are my long explanation has only confused you(grins!))

THANK YOU:_SerenaClearwater_ (thank you, fortunately my dad fixed it up! (grins) now I can get everyone in this again! YAYS!), To_sarah,BeccaPatty, andcool-chick-rae_ (Do you see now why she smelled and looked like our favorite brothers? But is she real? Can you trust her words? Or is she a trickster and a shapeshifter? Hmmm...(winks)), _freelke_ (glad to hear it! Chapter 8 is ALL fluff and family stuff...more coming!), _angelpup, Mad4Manga_ (VERY good ideas, I had a thing about Sota's new girlfriend, but I cut it out...Maybe I'll add it back in later, I was going to make her an "exchange" student from the good old USA. Not myself or anyone else, just a life-like situation...I'd make it funny becuase she'd have nasty grammar mistakes with her Japanese...), _mal, NefCanuck_ (good questions...(grins)), _fanfiction1_ (Just in warning, painkillers have their disadvantages. They can slow labor and some say increase the chance of c-section. I'd say go as long as you can without them...and remember, labor isn't MEANT to be painless...I feel like a encyclopedia (blush)), _lady kjerston of the western_ (don't be sorry! It's okay! Hearing from you is good enough! Missed you! And computer troubles and long in stuff (nods sympathetically) I understand! And his ears? (snickers) Yes, a torture for him in the future (dreams of nice little incidents she can write about in other companion stories for when the pup is older...) oh wait...still typing aren't I? Dream later...anyway, good to hear from you, and don't be sorry! Thanks for taking the time to review though!)

Kay, I'm done now...Next chapter is called "The Tracks of a Demon." It's an interesting chapter, might answer some questions but is more likely to make you ask more...anyway, review and feel free to ask me a question! Love you all! (bows) until next time!


	7. The Tracks of a Demon

Disclaimer: Nope don't own 'em.

A/N: This has to be quick b/c I'm supposed to be in bed and if my dad catches me awake he'll likely kill me (or take te computer away, almost the same thing you know...) so I'm just going to say that this entire chapter is hints and clues. I think in particular the conversation that I "expose" between Taikokajin and another inuyoukai is revealing. After this I'm sure you'll have your opinion as to whether you trust her or not...and the tracks that whatever the thing was that left them behind was, well...I'll give you this clue, aside from my love of biology I also have a desperate passion for ancient animal life, mammals in particular. Chances are no one reading this will have a clue what kind of critter I'm talking about...and you won't till I reveal it of course (grins!) but on with the story, right? (Notes of Blah: Taikokajin (Taiko-Kajin) means "Pink Beauty." according to the online dictionary I found in Japanese. Shimofuri means "Gray." Lastly, if I don't update for a LONG time like this most recent week, check my profile, I'm keeping that updated with news...)

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**The Tracks of a Demon**

A grayish-black dog-like form slipped through the trees. Nose to the ground it sniffled, hot on a trail. The tongue that came lolling out of the side of its mouth was long, covered in sticky, slimy saliva, and alarmingly, _not_ pink. It was instead gray and dappled black, without a spot of pink anywhere on the dripping muscle.

When the beast looked up from its scent trail its ears were triangular and pointed, exactly like a wolf's. But it was no wolf…

The creature's eyes were a deep shade of brown, like the brown of the earth after the rain has come. But unlike the eyes of the white dog that had passed through the village nearby Inuyasha's estate a day before, this creature didn't portray a gentle expression of amusement. Rather the beast looked angry and flighty at once, as if it wanted to run away for fear of injury, but wanted to stay just to lurk and haunt the mortals of the village with its menacing presence.

It was _big_, a little smaller than a horse. About as tall as the average man's shoulders. Villagers who caught sight of it cried out that a wolf demon had descended on their village, likely looking for the ghostly white dog demon that had passed through the day before. Two canine demons or deities in one day were too much for them to see as coincidence. The two specters had something to do with one another, certainly.

But the creature they'd seen was not a wolf demon, or even a wolf god…it wasn't a wolf at all.

At first glance any mortal would've made the same mistake. The beast looked too much like a big wolf to be anything else in their eyes...but had they gotten a clearer view the villagers would've noted that the beast had a longer, narrower tail than a typical wolf. Its tail looked almost like a cat's. And the head was too big and too blocky to fit on a wolf—it looked more like it belonged on a bear.

Frightened off by the villagers in the day the beast slipped away, head and nose locked to the ground, sniffling along, searching…

He was following the scent of a dog demon…

Later in the afternoon the beast stumbled onto Inuyasha's estate and carefully circled the wall, scenting the perimeter. Once or twice it paused, considering leaping over the wall or testing the wall's strength…but each time it passed the thought by and continued on its way. By sunset the beast had seemingly grown bored and it vanished into the wilderness, likely never to be seen again.

Or so everyone hoped…

* * *

_Taikokajin opened her eyes, her ears whispering to her of another youkai's presence. Jumping to her paws she looked around the sleeping forest, her ears cocked attentively, her pink eyes wide and alert, and her lips withdrawn slightly from her jaws to expose her large and powerful fangs in warning. Whatever it was that had stumbled upon her resting place would regret it…she let loose with an audible growl, a deep rumbling made in warning by the transformed inuyoukai clan. _

_Slowly, from the brush ahead of her, another dog demon appeared, also fully transformed. It was a male, larger and bulkier than Taikokajin…and also, unlike the clearly albino female, this male was a rich gray. When it lifted its head to show Taikokajin its face the male's cheeks were clearly streaked with three turquoise youkai markings. The male's markings were identical to Taikokajin's. _

_Seeing this Taikokajin stopped growling and her posture relaxed. Her lips lowered, hiding the deadly fangs. Both inuyoukai stepped forward and nuzzled each other affectionately. A mortal watching would've noted that although it was significantly larger, the male dog demon lowered his muzzle to meet Taikokajin's submissively. It was he that licked her muzzle warmly, greeting her. She was superior to him. _

_They pulled apart for a moment and there was a flickering light from both—and then in place of the beasts of before, two demons stood, in human form. One was a woman, tall and proud, wearing a simple white kimono with a black obi. Her name was embroidered into the fabrics, about the hems and through the middle of the obi. She was pink-eyed and her skin was as white as the untouched snow in the clearing. _

_The other form was a man, slightly taller and bulkier than the woman, but also slightly younger—his face retained some smooth baby fat in his cheeks. His hair was darker than the pink-eyed Taikokajin's by far. Hers was almost white, almost transparent while the young man's was darker, almost blue, like moonlight reflected from the snow at midnight. When he lifted his eyes to take in his female companion the Inuyoukai's eyes were gray. His kimono was gray-green with yellow embroidered into the hems, collar, and sleeves. The obi was cream-colored, almost yellow as well._

_Taikokajin spoke first, her soft, motherly voice uncharacteristically sharp and demanding, "What news do you bring me, Shimofuri?" _

_The male, Shimofuri, started to walk closer to her, the turquoise streaks on his cheeks rippled with a slow frown that infected his face. The snow crunched beneath his feet noisily. "I have met with the furui, mother." He dipped his head slightly, closing his gray eyes. "You were right about them. They have been taking hanyous from our clan for centuries…"_

"_I** know** that!" Taikokajin hissed. She stilled her rage for a moment and looked away from Shimofuri. Her pink eyes closed, "What of Tsukiyume?"_

_Shimofuri lowered his gaze; "She lives." _

_Taikokajin's form visibly shuddered, her breathing could be heard to be ragged even by a mortal. Her son narrowed his eyes unpleasantly as he watched his mother's obvious relief. "Tell me, mother…" he began, directing his gray eyes toward the white snow, away from his mother's emotion, "What of Inutaisho's son? What of his human mate? Are there hanyous?"_

_Taikokajin looked back at her son, her shaking ceased immediately, her stony countenance resumed. "The Lord Inutaisho was a crafty youkai." She chuckled sardonically, "He was more mysterious than you or I or anyone else inside our clan thought he could be."_

_Shimofuri crossed the distance between himself and his mother swiftly, his expression was almost angry. "What is it then, mother? Tell me what you have learned…" _

"_The Lord Inutaisho had **two** sons…" _

_Shimofuri stopped where he was, still a good five feet of his mother. All expression had left his face; his eyes were a little wider than usual. "Two? But the clan would've known of another son…did a family rivalry erupt? Did Sesshomaru kill the other son?" he frowned suddenly, but killed the outward motion on his face immediately after and demanded instead, "What relevance is this, mother?"_

_She smiled, confidingly. "It is more relevant than you could even begin to dream of, Shimofuri…"_

"_Then what is it?" he snarled, irritated. His mother had always been more of a diplomat, which was why he'd never make a decent ruler—he didn't have the patience for it like she did, he was too much like his father had been._

"_The other son is named Inu-Yasha. You have heard of him." it was more of a statement than a question, and Shimofuri stared at her, stunned, although he didn't let the emotion reach his face. _

"_Yes, I have heard the name—most of Japan has! The Inuyasha that woke and slaughtered the sleeping dragon Ryokotsusei, _(A/N: little spoiler I guess if you don't know Inutaisho died fighting that demon, managing only to subdue it with a fang. Inuyasha came along and killed it later, but I don't know how to spell it, that's as best as I can do…I just hope everyone knows who I'm talking about (grins) sorry!)_ that stopped the great moth demon, Menomaru, _(That was his name right? Inuyasha the first movie's bad guy?) _that destroyed Kaguya's grip on time? The Inuyasha that reassembled the Shikon Jewel, and that killed the troublesome shape shifting Naraku? **That** Inuyasha?" Shimofuri demanded, glaring at his mother with narrow, angry eyes, "How do legends and mysterious warriors have anything to do with our situation now?"_

"_I just told you how, Shimofuri—Inu-Yasha is Inutaisho's second born son." _

_Shimofuri threw Taikokajin a dangerous glare, "I don't believe you mother." He growled, disgusted with her, "How could you let Sesshomaru tell you such a blatant lie! You know how unfriendly he has been since the Panther demon wars…"_

"_Why won't you believe, Shimofuri?" Taikokajin asked, her face and eyes were almost amused at her son's clear irritation and outrage, a smile played at the edges of her lips, "Haven't you ever wondered at those legends, haven't you ever wondered where the strange Inu-Yasha came from? They say he's a hanyou…"_

_The young gray-eyed inuyoukai stared at his mother, knowing full well by her expression that there was something he hadn't noticed, something that made him into a fool in her eyes. He sneered, "No, I have never truly believed all of those legends. A **half**-demon could never be so powerful. And as far as this Inuyasha's origins—if I had to think of it I would say he was an inuyoukai from the continent, from across the sea."_

"_Yes, that **is** plausible, my son…" Taikokajin nodded, appearing to approve of him, and the younger youkai bristled under her motherly judgment. He restrained his growling to be able to hear her explanation, "But I believe it is wrong. Sesshomaru told me where to find this Inu-Yasha, and he was telling the truth—their scents are exactly alike. They couldn't be anything except brothers, even if they are only half-brothers."_

_Shimofuri shook his head, unable to believe his mother's story, "No, Inutaisho couldn't have hidden such a thing from the clan—Sesshomaru would've told us…and at any rate, mother, it's impossible—the hanyou in the legends was too young to be a pup of Inutaisho's."_

"_Sesshomaru said Inuyasha was under a spell for fifty years, pinned to a tree by a priestess's arrow. That is how he can be Sesshomaru's sibling and still be so young." She smirked at her son then, "And he **is** a hanyou…I have scented it…"_

"_You've seen him mother?" Shimofuri eyed her almost warily. _

"_No, he was not at home…but I am sure that he will be back…"_

_There was a silence between mother and son. Finally Shimofuri asked, "What will you do, mother? What would you have me do? A male hanyou in Inutaisho's line, inside **our** clan…" he looked to his mother carefully, his lips pursed, "You know what this could mean…"_

_Taikokajin's facial features changed, growing tight. The lines around her eyes and mouth suddenly made her look old and tired. Shimofuri looked away from her, recognizing his mother's desperation and despising it. Inuyoukais were so fiercely loyal and determined…it sometimes led straight to their undoing. He feared for his mother, but was resolved to follow her to the depths of hell if she commanded it. He waited for her order. _

"_I know what it could mean…" in her thoughts she whispered, 'Civil war.' The clans had been at peace for a long, long time. If she were to shatter it, how would her name be remembered? But already the decision had been made. Her hands tightened, balling into fists with determination. She looked to Shimofuri, her face hard, "Do the furui know of Inuyasha?"_

"_They likely do…but if they don't know of his relation to our clan, he is of no importance to them…but if they **do** know that he is an inuyoukai from Inutaisho's line…" he let the possibility drag out into nothingness, knowing Taikokajin would put two and two together on her own. _

_His mother's pink eyes burned straight into his own gray ones, "Then we will have to secure the hanyou as soon as possible…will the furui negotiate with you?"_

_Shimofuri smirked, genuinely amused by his mother's question, "Will he have a choice?"_

"_Then it's final." She nodded sternly, her pink eyes never leaving him, "I will watch for the hanyou's return—you shall track the furui. Tell him of Inuyasha's existence…" her eyes glazed over with an unreadable emotion, some sort of distance, she was thinking of something else, "I will deal with this Inuyasha…"_

_Shimofuri felt a brief but intense and rather hated pang of worry for her. "Mother," he spoke quietly, allowing some feeling into his voice. _

_She looked to him, blinked once, and took a step back from him, "What is it?"_

"_Be careful…this Inuyasha has more legends circulating about him than even Inutaisho…"_

_Taikokajin turned her back on her son; her face was cold, without emotion. "Don't worry for me, Shimofuri. Worry for Yume…" she smirked then, quietly, to herself, "Besides, my son, this hanyou Inuyasha has settled down now, he has a mate and a very young pup. As long as I do not offend those two he won't see a threat coming." _

_With that Taikokajin walked away several paces and—with a flicker and flash of a bright light—her human form vanished and in its place a massive dog stood, growling quietly. As Shimofuri watched his mother dashed away, kicking up the hardened snow in her wake. _

_Although even her scent was fast dissipating, Shimofuri could still hear her last words inside his mind, and they made his body stiffen with doubt. _"…This hanyou Inuyasha has settled down now, he has a mate and a very young pup."_ How could **that** be? Only female hanyous could successfully take mates and reproduce…what made the infamous Inuyasha any different?_

Sesshomaru hates the clan…I can't help but think that he's set my mother up for failure…perhaps I will force the truth from him…

_Shimofuri closed his eyes for a brief moment and then his body began to glow a bluish-gray, his demonic energy swarming over his human form, changing his features…and when it dissipated there was a second massive dog, but unlike the albino female of before this one was covered in gray fur, sleek and healthy and young. When he opened his eyes triumphantly and looked to the sky above a piercing cry rang through the air, shivering and rippling through his body…his mother was saying goodbye in the predator's tongue. _

_**All the earth's blessings to you, mother.** Shimofuri thought worriedly, praying that his mother wasn't making a mistake…_

_He lifted his sleek gray muzzle toward the sky and let loose with his own song. It soared high, straight toward the distant stars. _

* * *

Miroku stared down at the crusty snow at the gates to the estate, frowning. At his side Mayuko was still as a stone, watching Miroku's expressions and movements as if he were a god. Her whole frame could be seen to shake upon close examination.

The monk rose from his bent over position, his eyebrows were knitted together over his nose. "You didn't happen to see the thing that left these prints, did you?" he asked the housekeeper, one hand brushing his chin absently.

The frightened woman shook her head, "No, no…" she shook her head, half-whimpering apologetically. "But I came and got you, sir, the moment that I saw them…"

Miroku silenced her gently with a dismissive wave of one hand, "It's all right, Mayuko, you've nothing to be sorry for or ashamed of…"

The housekeeper swallowed nervously and leaned closer to the monk, her eyes flicking between the strange marks in the snow at their feet and Miroku's expression of deep concentration. "Do you know what sort of beast left them? Was it a…demon? Was it…could it have been the demon that you and Lady Sango met yesterday? The one claiming to be related to Lord Inuyasha?"

Miroku sighed, thoroughly frustrated. "Mayuko," he pursed his lips and shook his head, "I have never seen a print like this in all my years wandering." He reached for her hand and knelt to the ground, pulling her with him. He pointed to the snow, at the mark. "Do you see the toes and the claws?" he asked, patiently.

She nodded, "Yes, sir…it looks like the print of a big dog to me, or maybe a cat…it's certainly not a hoof print, or anything left by a human…"

"Yes, Mayuko, at first glance I'd say the same too…but look more closely at it. Shippo leaves the same sort of prints in the snow, but not quite like this one."

"Shippo-chan's prints are _a lot_ smaller, Miroku-sama." Mayuko pointed out the obvious. The marks in the snow before them were perhaps as much as a foot across, maybe a little more. A wolf's prints could be as much as six inches across but it was clear to Miroku that these couldn't be wolf prints.

"Yes, I know…but what I'm saying is that this _isn't_ a print left by any animal we know of…or at least, of it was, I'd say it was deformed."

"Why?" Mayuko asked, confused.

Miroku took hold of her hand, pursing his lips in concentration. He guided it to the surface of the snow, placing her fingers into what would've been the toes of the animal. "Count the indentations with me, Mayuko." He asked, looking to her carefully, "One," her fingers brushed the valley of one of the print's toes, "Two," another, "Three, four…" he carried her fingers over to the last indentation in the snow, the smallest and shallowest of them all, "Five." He let go of her fingers. "Did you see anything strange about that, Mayuko?"

The housekeeper paused, staring at the huge print. It was just like a paw print, one that little Shippo's feet left when he played in the snow…she assumed that dog demons left the same sort of footprints as Shippo. The dogs that crossed through the village left the same footprints too, as did the cats that hunted rats about the dwellings. And somehow this footprint wasn't like those marks…it had the same look, the central pad of the animal's foot pressing into the ground and then the individual toes radiating around it…suddenly realization dawned on her and Mayuko covered her mouth with her hands in shock.

She looked to Miroku. "This isn't a dog's print! Or a cat's or a fox's…_the toes…"_

Miroku nodded, "Yes, there are _five_ of them, not four like there should be."

"Could the dog demon have left these?" Mayuko asked, quietly.

Miroku sighed. "Honestly I don't know about dog demon's feet." But he looked to Mayuko darkly, his eyes holding an ominous hunch, "All I know is that Shippo is a kitsune youkai, and he leaves footprints that are just like a fox's. I would assume that a dog demon's foot prints would be the same as a dog's."

"And these aren't…" Mayuko finished slowly, frowning, "What could've made it then?"

Miroku looked away from her and toward the village, and then toward the forest, dark and mysterious, withholding all of its secrets. A shiver traced its way up and down his spine. "I don't know…" _Inuyasha, hurry and come home…_ "Let's go inside Mayuko. It's cold out here, this footprint isn't going to run away from us any time soon…we'll let Inuyasha see it when he gets back…"

The housekeeper and the monk hurried inside, shutting the huge gate behind them with conviction. As night settled on Feudal Japan, Miroku, Sango, Mayuko, Shippo and the children blew out the candles reluctantly and drifted away into sleep…

Outside the estate's walls, a creature emerged from the forest. It glowed bright white in the moonlight. Slinking along the wall, the white beast sniffed quietly over the ground a few times until it reached a clear footprint in the crusty snow—a _five_-toed footprint. Slowly the white dog growled to itself, the pearly teeth gleaming in the darkness.

It hurried back into the depths of the forest a short time later, its pink eyes shining red in the white light of the moon.

Endnote: WHEEE! Over 100 reviews! I don't have the time to go through each one tonight (or rather this morning as it's SO late that it's Saturday now rather than Friday night!) so I'll just answer anything big real quick: _Silvercrystal_ Yes, I have heard of the punnet square, but I can't even begin to do the crosses with the demon/human 1/2demon/full human traits, so instead I worked off the one account of the hybrids passing on uneven distributions of their genes...it captured my imagination so I HAD to use it...next time I'll do it so that it makes more sense and the baby is more human than demon...no dog ears. I also know (but think of it as something more akin to a nightmare that I've been trying to forget!) of a punnet square that does (instead of four mixtures) something like 16 mixes...(dies horrible death)...but my entire class failed that test in Adv Biology...(sighs)..._lady kjerston of the western_ I thought of having him be horrified, b/c to someone of that time it'd probably seem unnatural, and I'm sure Inuyasha (as well as Koinu) could probably smell the difference between formula and the genuine article...but I decided to drop that idea, I mean, he's gotta respect the fact that it's hard enough for women when it's a NORMAL baby involved, but Koinu will have bloody FANGS! So as of yet there's been no discussion..._The Moonless Night_ Thank you! Love all of your ideas, and you're right, bottle feeding never worked out for my mom either. Taikokajin, as far as I see currently, doesn't really care much about the mortals involved here, unless they're mated to an inuyoukai or inuhanyou of her clan. So I think that it's okay to breathe a sigh of relief for Miroku and Sango for now..._inuyasha'sbabe07_ action in what way? Chances are it's coming in multiple forms...I have intrigue in this chappie, but no battling yet..._fanfiction1_ hehe, I love your enthusiasm, and all the "Never having kids," comments...(nods) weight gain bad, but you know the true goal, the purpose of "life," isn't education or careers or anything like that, it's parenthood and families. That's why I like writing this sort of thing b/c it's what I believe in at the end, I always find it touching...

Well that's it for tonight (er...this morning)...Next chapter is all mush...(winks) that's action of a different type now...((groans) I've been hanging around with lecherous guys too long, my very own Miroku, except I'm just not his Sango, he just WISHES I was...)


	8. Flirtatious Hanyous and Fanged Pups

**Disclaimer:** As said before, I don't own him...

**A/N:** As I promised! This chapter is ALL fluff and humor. The only moderately serious stuff is early on when IY talks to Sota about family and stuff...I've seen and heard people of our younger generation as well as the older people, burnt out and embittered, express negative feelings on relationships (or they simply bash the opposite gender about, or say having kids will just age you and give you a stroke/heartattack.) and I'm sick of it. So, in the spirit of monogamy, loyalty, companionship, and love (and I think Inuyasha and Kagome as characters support those things, I mean IY is loyal to Kikyo even after she's DEAD! And Kagome is willing to give Inuyasha her life without hesitation!) I wrote the conversation between Sota and Inuyasha. But don't get scared, it's not dark at all (grins) Hope you like it! Oh and after the talk with Sota...well...Inuyasha just deserved some action! I hope no one disagrees, if you do I apologize (whimpers)...Remember to review and tell me what you think! ALL comments and suggestions welcome and encouraged! With your help this story has broken 100 reviews already! YAYS! THANK YOU! On with the story...

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* * *

****Flirtatious Hanyous and Fanged Pups**

Kagome woke when it was still dark outside. The first thing she did was reach across the empty space of her very small and narrow childhood bed torealize that Inuyasha's warmth and powerful, muscular body were absent. So was Koinu.

Worry immediately laced her thoughts and the young woman opened her eyes, blinking the sleep from them hurriedly, looking around. The dark room was quiet and still—she was _really_ alone…

She sat up, ignoring the dizziness that followed her swift movement. She checked the side of her bed; to make sure Inuyasha hadn't just moved to the floor with Koinu to give her more room. He wasn't there.

Rising from the bed she wobbled a bit, and reached out to clutch at her nightstand for support. After a second or two she was stable and she started for the door. Just as she grabbed hold of the knob a dull clattering noise reached her ears, it sounded like it'd come from downstairs, in the kitchen she thought. A small smile took her face. _That's where Inuyasha is I'll bet…_

Pulling on a small robe before she opened the door, Kagome left her room as quietly as possible and descended the stairs. As she drew nearer to the kitchen se could hear voices quietly whispering. She paused right before the doorway, straining to listen to the conversation that was going on at the table. By the sounds she knew that Inuyasha had taken Koinu with him, which eased any worry she had for their pup. Koinu's soft squeals and baby noises assured her that he was happy. Above the pup's sounds she could hear Sota and Inuyasha talking quietly…she grinned when she realized that they were having a "Guy talk," session. Intrigued, she stayed where she was, hidden, listening.

"Were you scared, Inuyasha?" Sota asked, timidly. He was looking his brother-in-law carefully in the eye, awaiting the hanyou's answer.

Inuyasha's ears twittered; he was caught between playing with Koinu, slurping up his Ramen, and talking to his wife's little brother. "What?" he snorted, not looking to Sota's demandingly curiousgaze, "Why would I be scared? And anyway, how am I supposed to answer you when I don't even know what you're talking about exactly…"

Ten minutes prior to this conversation the hanyou had woken up beside Kagome with Koinu squirming restlessly on his chest, bored and looking to play. The pup's sleeping schedule had always been a little strange. Inuyasha had normally been able to get up, when they were at home at the estate, and play with Koinu until he was tired again—it didn't bother the hanyou considering that he needed less sleep than normal mortals. But here, at the Higurashi residence, he had to be careful to avoid waking Kagome or her mother or her brother, or her grandfather…so he'd taken Koinu out to the kitchen and beenabout to makehimself some Ramen—and he'd discovered Sota. Taking advantage of the youth, Inuyasha had asked for Sota to make him that Ramen as a midnight snack, and he'd been chatting with the kid and entertaining Koinu at the same time ever since.

Sota sighed loudly, biting his lip as he struggled to rephrase his question, "Were you scared that Kagome would die when Koinu was born?" Inuyasha looked up sharply at Sota, his amber eyes unreadable. The expression made Sota so nervous that he started stuttering more random information, still staring the hanyou in the eye the whole time, almost terrified. "Because, you know Mom was _really_ scared. The last time that she saw Kagome was in that last trip to the doctor…the one where the doctor was able to look underneath her skin to see how the baby was doing? That's called a sonogram or ultrasound you know, I saw a show on it once. And Mom was certain that the baby would be born _really_ soon, and when you guys didn't come back to visit for more than a month she was really starting to worry, so I mean, was it scary? Was Kagome sick at all afterwards? What took so long to—"

Inuyasha tickled Koinu, making the pup squeal happily and squirm, kicking his little bare feet this way and that as Inuyasha finally began to answer Sota's barrage of questions. "I was…" he frowned, "Worried about her. I didn't think about it too much…" he looked as if there might've been more to say, but he couldn't bring himself to finish it. Instead he frowned and reached for his Ramen bowl, slurping it while Koinu giggled babyishly and reached for his father's arms, trying to get him to tickle him a little more.

"And…" Sota hesitated only a moment before plunging into his next important line of questioning, "What's it like…"

Inuyasha glared briefly at Sota from over the rim of the Ramen bowl. He set it down a second later and sighed, irritated. "Sota, what is _it_ now? You need to be clearer if you're going to ask me these things…"

"You know…being married…being a dad now…"

Inuyasha cringed as if he'd been slapped. "When it happens to you, then you'll know." he answered shortly, turning his attention to the pup again, who was trying to reach for Inuyasha's bowl of Ramen, which was just a _tiny_ bit too far away from his little chubby arms and tiny clawed hands. Even so the pup reached and mumbled in his baby talk—he sounded as if he were chewing on his tongue. Inuyasha scooped up the infant before he could get any closer to the Ramen. _That_ didn't please the baby.

Over the pup's whimpering cries, Sota tried to get his question answered a second time. "But Inuyasha…I want to know if it's worth it, you know…" he swallowed nervously, "See, in high school and now in college there are lots of couples, men and women living together but not married…"

Inuyasha looked up, "You mean human mates?" he asked, intrigued.

Sota blinked, confused, "I guess so…"

"I thought," Inuyasha began, scowling, "That humans only took each other in official titles—marriage, husband and wife…in _my_ time the villagers kill anyone that takes another just as a mate, when did that change?" he'd always made special attempts—especially early in his relationship with Kagome—to hide their involvement with each other, not only from her family but from others of his own time. True, for several years he and she had been attracted to each other, which was something that both had worked to hide out of adolescent embarrassment. Yet over time, as the hanyou realized that his feelings for Kikyo had vanished, he'd been faced with the gut-wrenching realization that he loved Kagome, and she felt the same way. But, seeing as they were so different, it seemed like an impossible arrangement. He'd been under the impression that if her grandfather found out that they were more than friends—even that he just _thought_ of her romantically—then Kagome might be punished, even harmed for it…thus years passed before he was certain he could ask for her to be something more to him.

And now here he was learning that in Kagome's era men and women could mate each other as demons did, without being cursed or punished for it as they were in his time! How many years had he wasted _not_ dating Kagome then? How long had she yearned for him to mate her while he'd kept his distance, thinking that he was respecting her human traditions? (A/N: It's just gotta KILL him!)

Sota cleared his throat uncertainly and said, "Inuyasha…in 500 years a lot of things changed…I mean a few of my friends are already parents! None of _them_ are married!"

_Now _Inuyasha was stunned. "WHAT!"

Sota blinked in surprise and nervousness and Koinu started crying fussily at his father's loud outburst. "Inuyasha…uh…it's no big deal…"

The hanyou grumbled to himself and turned his amber eyes, and attention, to calming Koinu down. After several minutes the baby wasquiet again, pulling on his father's silver hair innocently, shoving the strands into his mouth and sucking on the ends. Inuyasha looked thoroughly unhappy at this but he didn't dare tryto stop it.

Sota, who still hadn't had his question answered, cleared his throat again and tried once more, "But…see, Inuyasha, the people I talk to all think that marriage is bad. They think that it doesn't work. They think it makes people unhappy. And…" he sighed, frustrated and nervous, the hanyou wasn't looking at him, "And all my friends…none of them want to be parents because they think it just gives you gray hairs…"

The hanyou growled and grumbled at Sota under his breath while he tried to get Koinu to let go of his hair, "Sota it sounds like your era is messed up to me. If everyone your age feels that way then there won't be many people left in Japan by the time Koinu grows up."

Sota frowned, "No Inuyasha, I mean, you're still not answering me! Is it _worth_ it? Does it make you feel good to be married to my sister? Does it make you proud to have a baby? Does it make you happy?"

Koinu let go of his father's hair and whimpered for a moment before he took hold of his feet instead and brought them toward his mouth, trying to suckle on his own toes. When he'd succeeded in this, the pup's eyes closed contentedly and he made a purring sound, a deep rumble of pleasure. Atop his little silver-hairedhead the baby's dog-ears twitched. Inuyasha wanted to laugh at the pup for that, but he restrained his own outburst and looked up at Sota, forcing a stern expression to etch itself there.

"Look Sota—don't listen to them. Are they married? Do they have pups?"

Sota shook his head quickly, "No, they just say that that's what they've heard is true."

"Well tell them to quite talking about what they know nothing about." He huffed resolutely, and then, looking to the pup, who seemed to be growing sleepy again, he announced, "I think I'm going to go back up and sleep a little more…good luck with things kid." He started to get to his feet, carefully making sure not to stir Koinu too much as he moved, but Sota called his name and stopped him.

"Inuyasha."

"What?"

"You're happy, right?" Sota's eyes were large and pleading. The hanyou sighed staring at them, wondering if the kid secretly liked torturing him by trying to force him to expose his inner emotions.

"Yes Sota, I am." He glanced to Koinu briefly, fighting the gentle sensation of awe and peace that was flowing through him. The pup looked so much like him that it was almost unnerving at times…the only other person who'd ever made the hanyou feel like that was Sesshomaru, and it had always been a negative feeling then, a knowledge that his brother knew his secrets, his weaknesses, his very soul, simply because they shared their father's blood. Looking at Koinu the emotion was different…comforting, peaceful, calming…the pup's tiny claws, silver hair, strong grip and even the blasted dog-ears, all filled him with a pride he'd never felt before, never experienced.

As if reading his mind Sota grinned and announced, "I really do think he's absolutely adorable…the cutest, sweetest, and funniest little thing since…" Inuyasha's amber eyes flew to Sota, and they were no longer soft and full of pride. Sota panicked and immediately changed his tune, "Since Genghis Kahn. He's a born killer your pup is!"

Inuyasha eyed Sota for a moment and then snorted a single, "Feh." He turned and started to head out of the kitchen, "Nice chatting with you Sota…Take care of my bowl of Ramen, would ya? I'm going to sleep…" as he walked out of the room toward the stairs a grin broke out over his face as he finished the rest of that sentence inside his head, _Yes, going to sleep with your sister Sota…_

As he walked up the stairs his acute hearing picked up the sound of creaking, and he looked up just in time to see the door to Kagome's room creep shut. His ears flattened against the top of his head and something, a cross between a smirk and a scowl, snuck over his face. "You little sneak…" he whispered to himself and hurried over the last few steps, careful to avoid jarring the pup as he went. When he entered the room he did it as quietly as possible, noted that Kagome was pretending to be asleep innocently, and closed the door firmly behind him, latching it.

He crossed to her closet carefully and pulled out a spare blanket. Fastidiously the hanyou arranged the blankets into a second bed on the floor parallel to Kagome's, and laid the pup there gently. He watched over Koinu for several lingering minutes, making sure that the pup was content and sleepy again. To be thorough he even leaned in close to his now sleeping son and sniffed him…no dirtied underpants thankfully, and no scent of hunger yet…the pup was satisfied and without care…which meant he could make his move.

Cautiously Inuyasha left the pup where he was, dozing happily, his fingers and toes beginning to twitch with the beginnings of a dream, and crawled onto the bed next to Kagome. He did it furtively, as if he were trying to avoid waking her—but he could tell from her heartbeat and her breathing that she wasn't really asleep—only pretending. Just when he should've snuggled in close to her to resume sleeping, as he'd told Sota he would, Inuyasha shifted his position so that he was directly over Kagome's body, straddling her from head to foot. He rolled her with one hand from her side to her back so that she was facing him and buried his nose into the crook of her neck, inhaling her delicious scent hungrily.

"I _know_ you're not sleeping, wench…" he growled into her skin.

Kagome's eyes snapped open in shock. "Inuyasha…" she shuddered when she felt the moisture and the sharp pressure from his fangs on her neck. It'd been a long time since either had engaged the other so physically—becoming parents had been a busy event, leaving both tired and distracted. Of course Inuyasha had been deprived for what he felt was a _long_ time, and that left him hungry…especially when he'd realized, while talking with Sota, that his hesitation with Kagome for _years_ in the past, when he'd wanted her _so_ badly but felt he couldn't have her, had been _unnecessary,_ well, it just about drove him crazy…

She felt one of his hands slip under her nightshirt. She shivered at the chilled touch and suddenly found that it was a lot harder for her to breathe…One clawed hand ran through the valley between her breasts, tickling, and at her neck the nips and kisses were planted at places the hanyou _knew_ drove her wild. Part of her reeled at the thought of where this was going—what if her grandfather heard them? The other bedrooms weren't _that_ far away, and with how enthusiastically Inuyasha was attacking her, she suspected they wouldn't be exactly quiet…and Koinu! What about him?

"Inuyasha!" she tried to scold him, tried to get his attention, but hearing her own voice she realized, with a little of a jolt, that she sounded more as if she were cheering him on. And certainly that's what Inuyasha seemed to think she was doing—the hanyou's lips left her neck then and came to her lips, smothering her words and protestations for a moment. When his tongue slipped into her mouth she almost laughed against his lips—she could taste his Ramen snack still! (A/N: Haha! That's happened to me! Except then it was Cherry Coke! Has anyone else had that happen? It seems like it should be REALLY gross but actually I thought it was quite the opposite...(snickers))

His hands were digging within her nightshirt, unbuttoning it. Asone of thebuttons further downcame undone and exposed more flesh, Inuyasha abandoned her lips to tease the new skin. _She could speak again!_

"Inuyasha," she breathed, trying to steady her voice and rid it of any desire—_that_ was a lost cause! "What about Koinu? We can't do this now!" but her voice shook and wavered—his busy hands had unfastened the whole nightshirt and now the hanyou's fangs were currently nipping some _very_ sensitive anatomy. (A/N: Gasp!)

But Inuyasha _was_ listening to her. He moved to her lips again, kissing her fiercely for a moment before pulling away, amber eyes gleaming as if on fire, "He's asleep, he won't mind."

"He's too young to be exposed to this!"

Inuyasha snorted, smirking at her, and leaned down to sample her luscious smell some more, "Honestly, Kagome," he whispered into her skin, "Do you remember being six months old? Do you remember being a year old?"

She didn't have to reply; they both knew the answer, but Kagome wasn't ready to give in just yet. "What about my family? Do you really want to risk—"

"You humans have such poor hearing…" her hanyou snorted, straight into her ear, his hot breath made her whole body shudder. He started to nibble her earlobe, slowly, sensually. Kagome melted—how could she resist? She'd have to be dead not to respond!

With a moan she gave in and reached up to struggle with the hanyou's shirt, looking for skin of her own to tease…

* * *

A high, plaintive whimpering pierced the stillness of the room. Kagome blinked sleepily for a moment, confused. Where was she? In a second she remembered: her old room! One of her hands fumbled through the sheets and came across something warm and fleshy, she could feel rippling muscle underneath. A smile slid across her face, _Inuyasha…_

But the sound…it wasn't her hanyou making those cries…_Koinu!_

She sat up swiftly and fumbled, reaching to where, hours before, Inuyasha had made a quaint bed for the pup before he'd sprung his trap on the unsuspecting but far from reluctant Kagome. Koinu was lying on his back, squirming unhappily, histiny fists balled up, little face twisted and covered with baby tears. Kagome picked him up hurriedly, holding him close to her, letting him take in her comforting scent while at the same time she checked to make sure he hadn't used his underpants as a bathroom, as babies are apt to do of course…but Koinu was clean—so comfort wasn't his problem.

Inuyasha stirred beside her then. She didn't look away from their son to watch him wake—she didn't need to, one of the hanyou's legs was entangled with her own and when his muscles moved against hers she felt his every motion.

He shuddered awake against her, "What?" he mumbled sleepily. Of course, as he was so tired and newly awakened, the words came out sounding more like, 'Wuh,' then fully formed as 'What.'

"Koinu's awake…" she whispered back at him. Even through the baby's squalls she knew Inuyasha would pick out her words—just because her quiet voice was so vastly different from the baby's screams.

"I hear." He muttered, and then she felt his leg move against hers, the hanyou was shifting positions. In a second he was sitting up beside her, amber eyes blinking sleepily, working to focus. When she looked in his direction, away from the squalling Koinu, she noted that Inuyasha's chest was bare and colored golden, a very sexy slice of perfection…she couldn't hold back the smirk as she realized that the careless hanyou hadn't bothered to dress himself after their earlier adventures…

"Good morning." She smiled mischievously at him.

Inuyasha seemed too groggy to appreciate or even respond to her greeting; instead he inhaled sharply once, blinked confusedly, and announced, "The pup is hungry."

"Oh…" she realized, staring at her husband, that Koinu must've chosen to wake him at a time when he'd been deeply sleeping, a thing he did so rarely—and yet, she suspected, needed a lot more than he let on…she reached out to him and patted his bare, well-muscled shoulder, and grinned when she saw his ears twitch reflexively, "Inuyasha, you sleep, I'll feed Koinu and take care of him, okay?" besides, she thought, he was probably too groggy to realize that he was naked. If she let him comfort Koinu after she'd fed him as he liked to do to allow her some extra sleep, he'd probably stroll through her kitchen lacking a single article of clothing. Kagome couldn't begin to imagine what her grandfather would say about _that!_

The hanyou's ears fell flat on his head, drooping. Sluggishly he nodded and his eyelids sank. But his words contradicted what his body screamed, "Are you sure? I could take him for…" but she waved her free hand to shush him and pushed him back toward the pillows.

"Sleep Inuyasha! Don't make me say "it," to get you to obey…"

From the pillows, where the hanyou's face was now smashed harmlessly, quickly falling back into unconsciousness, there came only one muttered, barely intelligible word: "Feh."

Kagome chuckled tiredly for a moment and then rose from the bed, Koinu still crying, though weakly now, in her arms, and slipped on a robe. A moment later she left the room, but not before checking the clock on her nightstand, which clearly read ten o'clock. Just outside her room she heard her mother and grandfather bantering about the weather amiably and sighed with relief. She headed toward the stairs.

"Mom?" Kagome's voice queried hesitantly, as she descended the steps.

"Kagome? You're up!" it wasn't really a question, as the answer was obvious—who else would be traveling toward the kitchen with a howling infant in the Higurashi residence? "I _thought_ that that little puppy would get hungry!" Mrs. Higurashi laughed, and as Kagome reached the bottom of the stairs she saw her mother appear with a bottle of formula already made up. "I have it heated just right I think!" she exclaimed.

Kagome was grateful—Koinu was bound to start teething _very_ soon, and she dreaded the thought of breastfeeding him once his fangs came in…and she assumed there would be fangs, considering who his father clearly was. She'd come to silently worship Inuyasha's mother despite the fact that she'd never known the woman—after all, in the Feudal Era Lady Izayoi would've had no choice but to use what nature had given her to keep Inuyasha fed as a pup, whether he had terrible little fangs or not.

She took the bottle from her mother and gently tried to coax Koinu into taking the bottle's nipple into his little unhappy, crying and puckered mouth, but the baby was stubborn. His crying and whimpering rose in intensity as the nipple was pushed at his unwilling mouth. Couldn't they see he wanted the _real_ thing?

Kagome looked up at her mother confusedly. "I don't understand." She frowned, "He took a bottle yesterday! What's different about it today?"

Mrs. Higurashi sighed; her hands went to her hips. "Well…babies can get this way…once they've had the breast they don't want formula."

Determinedly, Kagome tried to push the nipple into Koinu's mouth a second time but the baby, still screaming as if the women were trying to strangle him rather than trying to feed him, turned his little face away. The tears were streaming down his angry face…Kagome pursed her lips and looked to her mother worriedly. "What now?"

"Try again…"

Kagome teased the pup's chin and lower lip with the nipple; let a bead of the milk spill onto his tongue. When she pushed the nipple into his mouth, praying for success, the pup whimpered uncertainly for a moment and then closed his lips over the structure. For a moment he appeared to have accepted his fate, but then his blue eyes found his mother's face, lingered for a moment, and as if to spite her relief, he tried to spit the nipple from his mouth. The crying and screaming began again, the waterworks resumed.

Frustrated, Kagome gave up and pulled the bottle away from her son. Looking to Mrs. Higurashi she waited for further instruction. What her mother had to say wasn't what she wanted to hear though.

Sighing, Mrs. Higurashi threw up her hands in defeat, "You'll have to breastfeed him for now…later he might be less picky, but at this moment he's bent on having things his way…" she chuckled then, "Sounds a little like his father…"

Kagome forced a smile at her mother's observation, but inwardly she was thinking of his father's fangs, the way they glinted brightly in the light when he laughed or yelled or smiled, the way they nicked her flesh like razors if the hanyou wasn't careful with her delicate skin…if the pup grew too strong too fast, and teethed before she could wean him to a bottle or a solid diet, he'd end up trying to chew her breasts right off her!

_Oh crap…_

Endnotes: _Kiante_ A new face here! You read and reviewed "Hanyou's Ending" for me, THANK YOU! I hope to see more of you in the reviews for this sequel (or at least that you read this and know that I didn't forget you!), _cool-chick-rae_ THANK YOU! For all your dedication, you're there reading and reviewing both of my current stories and have been for some time! THANK YOU, _fanfiction1_ you're using your head most definately! I'll let you keep thinking that, I won't tell you whether it's along the right lines or not just yet...(grins)..._Mad-4-Manga_ whoa! it's okay! Sleep! I know what it's like to be exhausted, and don't worry, if you don't review, although it IS good hearing from you! Okay, was this fluff good for you? (grins) I know I liked it. Actually, come to think of it, I didn't know about breastfeeding and collick (spelling?) I know about the condition itselfI was a breastfed baby, as were all my siblings, and I was exceptionally collicky I'm told. I'm inclined to say that I'd think it'd be better than formula but considering that I was breastfed and I DID have a lot of collick I can't dispute it. I learn something new everyday! Thank you! As for the paw-print maker, we shall meet him later... _SerenaClearwater_ Oh Oh! I wanna hear your opinion! Seriously I do! I'm only half-decided on what I want it to be...I THINK I know but your ideas and input are still welcome indeed! Oh, and I got your fluff! (grins!), _heather, _Yes, but my "hentai" borders on simply ridiculous, he was trying to make me fawn on him and compete with these two girls that were both five years or more younger than me. I mean he just wanted me to degrade myself so that he could derive some sick pleasure out of it...so I ignored him instead. (grins) _Silvercrystal_ I plan to answer those confusions later, yes, but if I should miss something feel free to ask!(nods eagerly) _yeahmiroku_ anothernew face! Welcome! Thanks for reviewing "Hanyou's Ending" hope to see you reviewing this story soon too! _lady kjerston of the western_ Thank you! I was trying to paint her that way, she's like Inutaisho and Sesshomaru b/c she needs to be a ruler, but unlike them she's a mother...that determination and such will be very important later...Good hearing from you! _NefCanuck_ Yes, as a matter of fact that's what I'm writing right now, er, whenever I have time! It's been VERY funny so far, though it will be less funny once he actually meets Taikokajin..._ The Moonless Night_ THANK YOU! I was SO happy to read your comment that I went back and reread it...I made him less stone-cold and arrogant. He's got more family to live up tohe lives by his mother's rules rather than in a father's shadow. _Taigo_ It might've just felt long because there was only plot development and no fluff...I'm sorry for that, everything should be in moderation and without any Kag/IY it was a tad harder to read...well live and learn eh?

Thatt's it for me! Next chapter is: **The Hungry Wolf** in which we meet the maker of last chapter's five-toed paw-print...is he/she/it bad or good or what? Hmm...? hehe...review and tell me kay? Until next time!


	9. The Hungry Wolf

**Disclaimer:** Okay, said it once but I'll say it again, I don't own Inuyasha...never will (pouts)

**A/N:****(Warning! The language in this chapter is up a notch!)**Sorry for my absence but this was the week of my b-day (the 18th, Friday) so I was distracted...kay, one thing I forgot to mention here is that "furui" means "ancient." Just so you know of course...I didn't want to lamely call the demons that Garou (he's the hungry "wolf", sorry to those who thought of Kouga, but that does bring up the interesting question of where'd Kouga go that I might have to address, but I suspect that he's happily mated to Ayame...who I very much like with him better than the idea of Kagome...) belongs to "ancients." I watch Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis and so saying "Ancients," just didn't sit well with me...(shrugs) never seen those shows? They're pretty cool (I'm not a rabid fan, but they're interesting enough to keep me entertained) I recommend them...anyway, so I looked up ancient in Japanese and that's what I got. So, if you were confused in an earlier chapter (I used it in chapter 7 I think without defining it sorry!) go back and have a new look at it and it might make more sense...I apologize...I'm very forgetful sometimes...anyway, ENJOY! Don't forget to drop me a line, kay? You guys don't know how much the reivews mean to me, several times now I have stopped writing part of a story becuase a reader made a GREAT point and thus I had to change it...so don't be shy! hehe...read till the end on this one, I have a surprise waiting there...(winks) enjoy!

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* * *

****The Hungry Wolf**

_The wind whispered of an approaching storm. The brutal, snarling, chilled breath of the coming fury cut through his fur, making him snarl into the breeze, cursing the climate. These northern lands were far from where he'd been born, far from where he'd been _meant_ to dwell…but one must do what one must do…_

_Nervously he turned against the wind to look behind him and to try and scent any hidden dangers…the fields he was crossing were unlikely places for an ambush—he was too likely to see the movement coming toward him and either run off or charge in head first to meet the attack…but then again, how many would suspect him to be anything but a normal, mortal wolf? Surely he was only a deformed reject of the pack, a loner, a starving wolf. But nothing more than that…they wouldn't wonder at his strangeness, they would merely accept him as an oddity of what was already familiar and well-established in their minds. _

…_None of them would **ever** suspect that he was unlike anything they'd ever seen before…he was one of a dying breed of demon._

_His body stiffened suddenly and he stopped, mid-stride. His wolf-like ears stood erectly atop his head, sharply pointed. His nose twitched, taking in the sharp new scent on the wind…his deep brown eyes narrowed in concentration. **That foolish dog demon pup is back from that pink-eyed bitch…**_

_He turned round, slowly. The wind now drove straight into his face, punishing him, beating him. He let loose with a deep, thundering growl. Any mortal that might have heard it would've shuddered with the sudden realization that the creature didn't _sound_ like a wolf…it was a growl that had once struck fear into the brainless beasts of the past, but now it was merely an oddity, a thing that the earth had not heard in this part of the world for many, many long years…_

_When the beast opened his mouth white fangs gleamed…but they weren't the fangs a wolf would've sported. His canines glittered like the snow, sharp and bright, but beyond them, toward the back of his mouth, there were jagged, triangular teeth—and just as a wolf's teeth set it apart from a dog, so too did his teeth separate him from the dogs and the wolves around him…but the teeth were only one thing of so many…_

_His growling intensified at the mere thought. The scent of the dog demon—who might as well have been a pup for all his age and wisdom in spite of his ornate clothing and lavish title and estate—was drawing closer, but he still couldn't see the irritating menace. His nose wasn't as sharp as the Inuyoukai and wolf demon's, but it was certainly sharp enough to recognize that this wasn't any random dog demon approaching. It was that damned Shimofuri again!_

_And to think that the Inuyoukai, Nekoyoukai, and wolf demons had inherited **his **__world, **his**_ _lands, **his** prey, **his life…**_

_Enough was enough. He would draw the Inuyoukai out with speech, even if he froze without his true form's protective pelt of fur—even if his fur _was_ inadequate as far as this cursed northern land's temperatures went. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. His fur rippled, his skin itched…there was a moment of intense pain that he gritted his teeth through…his stomach twisted, his spine straightened, his paws turned into fingers, his hind limbs lengthened and straightened, and his snout shortened, the nose traveled to a benign place between the eyes and separated the cheeks. His canine-like ears lowered themselves, lost their fur, and flattened against the sides of his head, right at the end of the jaw, just as in a human. In a second flat he was almost impossible to tell from any normal mortal by sight. _

_He stood, tall, resolute, and proud. But he was also aggressive, stiff, and arrogant. In his dark brown eyes—eyes the color of the earth after the coming of the rain—there burned a terrible hatred of most living things. So many secrets festered and fermented in the depths of his soul that the demon no longer knew how to **truly** laugh or smile. If he expressed such a thing on his face it **never** reached his eyes. In the transformation he chose to wear a cape and hood, which easily hid his body's secret strength, and the hood kept his face in shadow._

"_Show yourself you worthless mutt!" he shouted into the howling wind, snarling vehemently. _

_In the distance, stepping up and revealing himself over a dune of flowing snow and ice, Shimofuri appeared, already in his human form. Even through the bitter breeze the demon could see that the ever miserable and prissy Shimofuri—were **all** Inuyoukai such prudes?—was wearing a heavy light blue kimono that was completed with a light blue obi about his middle. Kanji spelled out the Inuyoukai prince's name clearly over the obi elegantly, even from a distance. _

"_Shimofuri," the demon snarled, sarcastically, "How nice of you to drop by…"_

"_I must speak with you, Garou." _

_He instinctually cringed at the name he had chosen for himself upon meeting this most annoying Inuyoukai. It meant, "Hungry Wolf," in Japanese. But his **real** name…it just wasn't right for the Inuyoukais to know it and to speak it—they weren't _worthy_ enough to have such a privilege…_

"_There is nothing to speak with you about, Shimo-chan." He chuckled cynically, sneering at the young Inuyoukai. He _loved_ the Inuyoukai's language and culture—it was _so_ easy to insult the dog demon and his kin with it. There were so many intricate little things he could do wrong, and little they could do to enforce him to respect their rules. They could smell as well as hear that he was a foreigner. The accent he spoke with was obvious enough._

_Shimofuri ignored the demon's mistake and began walking—cautiously—forward. As he moved he began speaking, drawing Garou's attention clearly with his teasing words, hoping that for once he could be like Taikokajin and sweep the demon off his feet with clever, velvety deception. _

"_Garou, Lady Taikokajin knows of your people in myths and legends."_

_At those words Garou paused. Under the darkness of his hood his eyes narrowed in suspicious hatred. **Damn that pink-eyed bitch! How much can she know?**_

"_You know nothing of my kind—brainless dog." He snarled, daring the Inuyoukai pup to foolishly expose his cards in this game of wits. _

_The pink-eyed Inuyoukai's pup fell right for the bait: "She knows that your people are called the furuis in legends. They say your race is so old that the animals they once represented have disappeared from the earth…and she also knows that you're cursed to die with them, unless you can find one **male** inuhanyou of high breeding…" Shimofuri had the stupidity to beam, although he didn't smile, and didn't really lift his nose up into the air to look down on Garou from a distance. Even so, Garou could tell the Inuyoukai **thought** he was very clever…_

**_Let's not upset him then, let him go on thinking that he _**is**_ clever…_**

_"That knowledge helps you in no way, foolish pup. Your bitch has been chewing her paws too long again, those fur balls have infected her brain…"_

_Shimofuri had continued his approach as Garou spoke. Now they were within the natural ten feet distance that negotiating demons preferred to have between one another. Of course, in Garou's time there hadn't been any of this cultural scat. He could remember his father and mother fighting with others of their kind, so long ago departed, so long ago…when a dispute was to happen the individuals barked and screamed and screeched their complaints at their opponents. Strength of voice prevailed. The more passionate beast always walked away more respected and the clear winner. If things needed to go beyond that there would be a fight—not with swords or with spears or any other wimpy, whiny tools. It would be fought with only what nature herself had given the combatants. Claws and teeth, true forms, intelligence, sheer size and passion of spirit, and a little black magic for the truly talented…_

_But in these days, days of cold climate, carefully suppressed instinct, and human culture, the old ways had vanished. Garou would've liked to tear the Inuyoukai that stood before him apart—limb from bloody limb! He would _enjoy_ it too, love every moment. He would lap up the miserable pup's blood right off the snow and ice. Scent might not have been his kind's personal forte—as it was with the neko, inu and wolf youkais in these modern days—but the more primitive, more delicious, more personal sense of taste _was_. He would be able to _taste_ the pup's DNA, the very molecules that separated dog kind from his own, the furuis. He would be able to taste the pup's very _soul…

_Yet that was not what would happen this day. Garou couldn't risk the slightest injury…if he failed, if he died, then all of his kind died with him. Thus, although he broiled and bristled inside, the demon did nothing. He played the Inuyoukai's disgusting game of "culture," and "negotiation." _

_Shimofuri stared at the other demon with disdain. His face seemed stiff, as if he were fighting some great expression of emotion. As if he wanted to breakdown and scream at Garou, just as the furui's kind had settled "negotiations," in that distant, distant past…but he refrained. Instead he ignored Garou's derogatory comments about his mother's grooming and pressed onward, his words smooth and clearly attempting to be clever…_

_**Just like his mother, the queen bitch of his whole damn family…**that had been another thing that separated furuis from inu, neko, and wolf demons. They generally lived alone, hunted alone, and when they took mates it was with violence…there were no clans and no extended families to respect. As far as Garou could tell the furui way was still the best way to live, the smartest way…the bitch _never_ sent her pups out on tasks, she belonged in the den, waiting on her mate as a human slave might serve a king. But here Taikokajin's miserable pup was, obeying his mother's instructions, despite their inherent danger…_

"_Garou," Shimofuri began as keenly as he could, as amiable as his "cultured," façade would let him, "Have you ever heard the name Inuyasha, before?"_

_The demon paused, stiff. The pup and his bitch were smarter than he'd thought. He quickly covered his initial surprise with a fast suspicion. His deep brown eyes narrowed at Shimofuri. "I have heard of it in legends from this land…" that was all he'd say—he'd let the pup finish the rest of the thought, if he could. _

_He could: "Did you happen to hear in those legends about this Inuyasha's heritage?" _

_Garou sneered lightly, though the expression could've almost been a dry, sardonic smile, except that the muscles in his face had forgotten how to form even that much mirth. "I had heard he was supposed to be a _half-_demon…"_

"_A _male inuhanyou…_" Shimofuri finished, the pup's despicably handsome, young, and bright gray eyes gleamed with this obvious part of the story, "Do you know who his father was?" _

"_I suppose you and your bitch mother do?" Garou asked sarcastically, snarling. _

_Shimofuri had indeed mastered the "culture," part of his job very well. He managed to ignore the snipe with surprising ease. "His father's name was Inutaisho…have you heard _that_ name…?"_

"_Of course, runt." _

_Shimofuri seemed caught unawares by Garou's silent acceptance of this "news." He blinked once and then asked, "If you knew this before, Garou, were you so _stupid_ as to not seek out Inuyasha to end your curse?" he prompted, challenging Garou's calm exterior. _

_Truly a stupid excuse for a life form…but at least he's fallen right into my hands. He doesn't know the truth, only thinks that he does…but to keep him from getting suspicious I guess I have to show this ridiculous pup some emotions…_

_He let his anger and disgust show, sneering and growling deep under his breath. His voice rumbled in such a low range that Shimofuri blinked in something close to fear and stepped back several paces before catching himself and stopping swiftly. Garou laughed derisively at the pup's blunder and decided to run him into the earth for it. _

"_You little sniveling **fool!** I should tear you apart where you stand! Then I'd chew the marrow from your measly, disgusting doggy bones! And when my guts were full of your blood and filth and stench, I'd wander to where you and that bitch of yours den and I'd vomit all over her gates, paint my name in your stupid little kanji letters all across her lands!" he spat at Shimofuri, making the young Inuyoukai step back, startled. The pup had noticeably blanched at the furui's words, at his clear savagery, but even so he tried to stick up for his honor—even though he had none to defend as far as Garou was concerned. _

"_I'd like to see you _try_, maybe there's a reason your kind disappeared…"_

_Garou ceased laughing immediately. The pup had found his _only_ sore spot, his _only_ weakness when it came to verbal threats…his cheeks flushed with an internal heat, a deep, primitive rage and hatred. He didn't possess the inner strength to suppress it…_

_The demon leapt at Shimofuri, exposing, for the first time, the traits that his long cape and hood had concealed. The inuyoukai jumped quickly out of reach from the other, noticeably slower demon, but his eyes were glued to the obviously deformed human shape in front of him. Garou's human body was thick and big boned—and his legs were bowed and twisted—they were like the hind legs of a dog or a wolf when the animal is forced to stand on its hind legs. Shimofuri was sure that inside his shoes Garou hid canine-like feet ending in heavy, thick claws. When the hood had fallen back Shimofuri saw, clearly, the sick thickness in the demon's neck. The muscles bulged, making his neck look short, squat, ugly, and fat. Almost as if his body were swelling there—like goiter _(A/N: Swelling of the thyroid frequently caused by a lack of iodine, but most people in Japan wouldn't have to worry about it as it's most commonly found in seafood in abundance…(grins) that was my Adv. Biology report topic you know)

_Garou ceased his attack abruptly, calming his inner rage again almost as quickly as it'd burst out in the first place. Unashamedly he left the hood down, letting the Inuyoukai see the demon's oddly shaped face—the way it seemed to stick out just a little too far, as if Garou's true form had been unable to completely flatten its snout. He had little hair to speak of, just a few stringy strands here and there. With the hood up the demon's face looked normal, even handsome, but the moment it was lowered it revealed the utterly ugly truth.Shimofuri felt suddenly nauseated seeing such oddities, and smelling them, he'd always assumed that the youkai's scent was so strange simply because of his unique race—but in reality he was starting to believe that Garou simply avoided water…_

_His wits had left him. He stared, too stunned to do much else, and Garou snarled at him, fed up and disgusted. "I'd rip your throat out if it were worth my time." He sneered, and then started to turn away…_

_Shimofuri blinked stupidly and roused himself into action. "Garou!" he called._

"_We're through here Shimo-chan," the furui snorted, "Thank you for the history lesson on Inuyasha…"_

"_No—Garou—Lady Taikokajin will make you a bargain…"_

"_I want nothing to do with your bitch." Garou _still _wasn't turning back…the distance between the two demons had reached close to fifty feet of crunchy, dry snow…_

"_Taikokajin will exchange Inuyasha for Tsukiyume." _

_Garou stopped, pausing. Slowly he turned round, his face a wrinkle of disgust and something like amusement. "You think," he began, his tone dangerously low, "That I'd _trade_ with your bitch for the half-demon when I could just take him myself!" Garou actually began to laugh, full throated, hearty laughter. "You Inuyoukai really _are_ stupid!"_

"_But you won't be able to get Inuyasha." Shimofuri growled, his own voice sounding irritated now. _

"_Oh? And why's that, Shimo-chan?" Garou asked through his sarcastic laughter._

_Around them the wind picked up, carrying little ice crystals with it. The ice landed on Garou's skin and he tried to ignore the chill that was settling on his bones. He couldn't take much more of the weather in his human form…**damn that pup and his bitch! Such persistent, miserable dogs…**_

"_Because my mother has warned the hanyou about you, and she will take him in and protect him until you return Tsukiyume to her…"_

"_I could just beat you to him, or take him from your bitch, Shimo-chan…"_

"_But you won't and you know it, so does Lady Taikokajin. You won't risk disfiguring injury…" but then Shimofuri smirked cynically and added, "But it's not as if you don't already _look_ disfigured…maybe someone scraping you up a little more wouldn't do you so much harm…"_

_Garou growled under his breath, contemplating the situation. Although the pup didn't know it he _was_ trapped, but not in the way that Shimofuri wanted. If he walked away from this proposed "deal," then Shimofuri might just use his brain and realize the _full_ truth…then he'd be in real trouble. _That_ thought frightened him…but at the same time the thought of cooperating even in the slightest, even if it was all the time false, nauseated him. Inu, neko and wolf youkais were _nothing_ in comparison to his people…but it was because they were at stake that he must endure, he must do all that he could and be cautious…_

_He looked up into Taikokajin's pup's gray eyes, bright, clear, young, and _certain_ that he'd won. Garou forced his face to remain neutral but inside his mind he thought, **you stupid mutt, you'll never see it coming, not now, not ever, not you or that bitch you call mother…**but aloud he said simply, "I'm listening, Shimo-chan…"_

* * *

Koinu squealed, squirming, he flung his arms and kicked his little feet. A broad, innocent, and glee-filled smile grew on his chubby baby face. The white dog-ears atop his head bounced and twitched randomly. It looked as if he were practicing with the muscles that controlled the movements of his ears, as if he were working them out, making them stronger. Yes, someday he might be able to lift weights with them… 

"He truly is absolutely adorable!" Mrs. Higurashi gushed, and then, unrestrainedly, she reached down and pinched his cheeks, feeling the smooth, un-creased, perfected skin her grandson possessed. Then her fingers flew to his ears and rubbed slowly. Koinu's eyes grew to three times their normal size and the smile on his face seemed to fall open into a wide and astonished, "O". A second later and the pup was squealing all over again, kicking and reaching for his grandmother's hands. The tickling was too much pleasure for him. If he'd had the ability he'd have cried out for Kagome to save him—or better yet Inuyasha! That way, after he'd been saved from Mrs. Higurashi he could play with his father's ears!

But it wasn't to be, and the torture stopped soon enough anyway.

"Mom!" Kagome's voice barked from the sink.

Mrs. Higurashi turned away from Koinu, "Yes?"

"Are you _sure_ we don't have any buckets or baby bathtubs or anything?"

Her mother sighed, wringing her hands slightly with regret. "No, Kagome." She sighed, "It's been a _long_ time since anyone was a baby in this house…"

"But the _sink_ Mom? We wash _dishes_ there, and I love Koinu, but…"

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head, "Kagome, when I was pregnant with you _and_ Sota and I was suffering morning sickness, sometimes when I couldn't reach the bathroom in time—so I just used the sink to throw up in. And all your childhood you and Sota ate off dishes cleaned in that sink and you were fine, right?"

Kagome frowned, "I think I already knew that one Mom…and anyway, we're not talking about morning sickness now, we're talking about full-body bath for Koinu, in the _sink_, with the _dishes…_"

Back on the counter Koinu squealed, as if he sensed how much trouble his grooming was causing the women and wanted to rub it in a little.

"It will be _fine_, Kagome…" Mrs. Higurashi groaned, exasperated, "Ever heard of soap? I'll use soap afterwards and scrub down the sink."

"But Mom, you work so hard already and what if Koinu eats the soap or the sponge or the drain plug or something…and don't you dare say that he wouldn't, you know how babies are, and you _know_ who his father is!"

Kagome's mother had had enough speculation, and the pup's paternal ancestry didn't frighten her, "You worry too much." She pushed Kagome away from the sink and toward the squealing baby, "You get him ready and I'll get the sink ready, kay?"

"Okay…"

Only a few minutes later after the water was warmed, and the drain plugged, the phone rang. Not trusting Gramps to hear it, or Inuyasha not to scream obscenities into the innocent caller's ear, and because Sota was at his classes, Mrs. Higurashi answered it. It was a difficult task—she had to try cradling it with her shoulder to avoid touching it with her hands—which were wet and covered in baby soap from lathering the stuff onto her grandson's scalp. Yet—wonders never cease!—she got it balanced just right in time to speak into the receiver before the caller gave up.

"Hello?"

"Is this the Higurashi residence?" it was a male voice, a young male voice…

"Yes, who is this?" Kagome's mother turned to look back for her daughter, frowning in confusion. She didn't recognize the voice as anyone for her, Gramps or Sota…in fact it reminded her of…

"This is Hojo."

Mrs. Higurashi blanched and tried to get Kagome's attention away from where Koinu was splashing in the kitchen sink but it was futile. The pup had found the sink's plug and was trying to force his little claws underneath it and edge it out while Kagome was trying to keep him from doing it. "Oh, yes, Hojo," she tried to say the name loud and directly at her daughter but Kagome was completely absorbed with her son, "I remember you!"

"I've heard that Kagome has come back—is that true?" the voice was so light and cheerful, but strained at once. He must've been very nervous trying to track down the girl that'd made him dizzy in middle and early high school before she'd disappeared completely…Mrs. Higurashi felt terrible sympathy for the poor young man for a minute, but only a minute before a different thought came to her mind…

Mrs. Higurashi almost swore into the phone. _Sota! You know you're not supposed to talk about Kagome around the campus!_ Why hadn't that been the first thing to hit her? _Where else would it come from!_

"It's true, but she's a little busy right now I'm afraid." As if to prove her words Koinu squealed enthusiastically right then and a loud splash resounded—water splattered all over the floor. Kagome made a strangled screaming noise and then laughed happily.

"Mom!" Kagome shouted back at her, "He just hit the cup I was using on him to pour water all over the floor!" Mrs. Higurashi could only nod at Kagome silently.

"I think I can hear it…is that a baby?" he sounded almost excited, but she was certain that there was still a tightness to his voice, a forced cheerfulness...

Well, she might as well drop the bomb on him, "Yes, that's my grandson!" she chuckled, "He's having a bath in the kitchen sink."

"Oh…really?" he paused for a moment, and the silence on the line was horribly heavy, Mrs. Higurashi had the urge to simply hang up or claim she couldn't hear him anymore—maybe his cell phone had died? But before she could do anything like that Hojo suddenly laughed and said, "Congratulations Mrs. Higurashi! I didn't know Sota wouldn't tell me something so important as his sister getting married and having a baby! How could I miss something like that?" he sounded genuinely disappointed and Mrs. Higurashi shook her head, _he's such a kind young man…I hope he finds someone very nice and just right for him…_

"Well…" he sounded tight and nervous again, she heard him swallow uncertainly, "…Do you think I could see Kagome and her baby? And what about…her husband? What is his name? Sota never really told me but I hear from Kagome's friends that he's…" there was a strange pause and then he fairly yelled the next word into the receiver, as if making up for the uncertain pause of before, "Attentive! And isn't he from America? I think Sota's old girlfriend told me that…Shina was her name, you know, the one with the purple hair?"

Oh, yes, she remembered all right. "If Kagome wants to see you then I don't see a problem with it, but she _is_ busy at the moment…" Mrs. Higurashi looked to where Kagome was dousing Koinu with warm water, carefully trying to keep his eyes covered. Mother and son were laughing together; Koinu squirmed and splashed her while Kagome tickled him ruthlessly with one hand while with the other she supported him in the sink.

"Well, how about I call back? Would that be all right, Mrs. Higurashi?"

"Yes," she nodded into the receiver, still watching her daughter and grandson playing together happily, "That would probably be best…"

"Okay, thank you Mrs. Higurashi, nice chatting with you, congratulations again on being a grandmother! What's his name?"

She panicked then, "Oh, what? I'm sorry, you're breaking up…" she blew into the receiver, hard, and hung it up. The motion brought Kagome's attention in a worried glance.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Who was that?" Koinu splashed again, wetting Kagome's plain white T-shirt. She frowned down at herself…_damn! It goes straight down to my bra! Inuyasha would **love** this…_

"That was Hojo."

"WHAT!" Kagome shouted. Koinu, in the sink, squealed and started bouncing in his mother's grasp eagerly; the smile on his face was contagious like the common cold or a yawn in a crowded room. But at the moment no one was looking at him and the cuteness of his little puppy grin was lost to both women.

"Yes, Hojo…he wants to see you and meet Koinu."

"Oh no…" at that moment Koinu giggled innocently and plashed Kagome right in the face, soapy, frothy water soaked her shirt, saturated her hair.

"Uh…would you like me to finish up with him…Kagome?"

Endnote: Hehe...I want to see Kagome's expression too, must be priceless...(winks) Thank you to my reviewers, and here goes a shot at answering the questions: _SerenaClearwater_ (gapes) I actually had no idea that there were SO many mammals left with five digits like that! It's actually a sort of left-over trait, isn't it? There's a better name for it besides "left-over" but the true name escapes me...most mammals nowadays have four on the hind legs and five on the front (with the fifth digit recessed so that it'll leave no mark in a print) but as usual my assumption that none were left with five digits was wrong...wow! Thank you for the biology lesson! We learn something new everyday! _Kiante_ Thank you! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the story! And as for the fangsI'm scared of the thought of just having a normal baby without fangs! (shudders) And it's no problem mentioning you! _Lena17_ (shakes her head) I KNOW I couldn't! One day maybe a normal baby but fornow, not a chance! _Heather_ Thank you! Yes, those living Mirokus are interesting to say the least...how did dressing yours up in monk attire go? (snickers) Does he look the part as well as act it? _lady kjerston of the western_ Yes, (sighs) I miss being NOT-single, and that memory is a fond one...you couldn't breathe? Gosh...that must've been some serious action there! I never got to breath-stealing kisses! (is envious) Thank you for commenting on that, I'm glad I'm not the only one that's experienced it... _cool-chick-rae_ LMAO! Yes, the thought of Inuyasha...hmmm...(falls into silence and begins drooling) _NefCanuck _well, you know with how cute he and Inuyasha are there's gotta be some drawbacks to make it even...(winks) _inuyasha'sbabe07_ GREAT question! (clears throat) I don't know for sure...the chances are slim for this fic, but I have another companion/sequel in planningto "So much for the..." that's all about THOSE two...so it's good to know that you'll be waiting to read that one... _kirarakitty_ I know it took me two and a half years to start speaking, my Uncle thought I was retarded (funny b/c my dad took SO much offense to that and now won't stop rubbing in to my mom that her brother's children turned out 1: Gay and 2: a drug user, sex fanatic while I'm going to graduate from high school this spring withmore than a 4.1 GPA and clean as far as drugs and sex goes, he says that it's the universe "balancing.") so I think I believe you...(wishes she had brothers to compare to and ask her mother about but she doesn't. Only sisters...) _The Moonless Night_ hehehe...what image? (blinks innocently) and the sleepy Inu scene just made sense to me after seeing the episides where one minute he's brooding over her while she studies and the next he's crashed out and she thinks it's becuase he just about never sleeps in the Feudal era, he's always trying to be ready to protect them...so I figured that then and only then would you ever find a groggy Inu...(sniggles) and I've seen pictures from when I was very young and my dad's holding me in nothing but his underwear or something becuase he was too exhausted to care and I was crying (I cried a lot!) so I wanted to write something like it... _mallory_ which fic do you mean? The one I plan on writing about Rin and Sesshy? Or one I mentioned in my profile? hmm...and the 18th is your birthday too? WOW! it's a VERY small world after all! How old are you now? I'm 19 (18 was a better number by far! Grr!) sprinda THANK YOU! I worry about that sometimes...

Well that's it for now...THANK YOU! To all who reviewed...next chapter is called: To Lie or Not to Lie unless changes are made last minute, which I doubt. That chapter has a lot of Sota in it and I think (although sometimes I'm told I'm just not funny...) it's pretty humorous...here's a snippet:

_"**Anyway!****"** Sango interrupted, tired of fighting, "She said her name was…" she paused, chewing on her lips a moment to remember and correctly pronounce the name the demon woman had given, "Taikokajin." She looked quickly to Inuyasha, searching for any obvious sign of recognition, "Mean anything to you?" _

_"Not a thing." He mulled the name over in his head. Taiko **pink.** Kajin **beauty.** Taikokajin, **pink-beauty.**__ "I take it she was a good looking bitch?"_

Yes, now that there is a female inuyoukai that term shall be used rather often...(if anyone hates that write in and I will lessen the frequency, kay? I know I don't like the word as an insult but as a term it makes fine sense!) Anyway...till next time!


	10. To Lie Or Not To Lie

**Disclaimer:** Nope, I don't...

**A/N:** Okay...I'm going to try and post this one ASAP, before 9:30 PM here, if I can manage it...so it'll be a really quick edit/check and answering and thank you session (I apologize for the shortness but I had to write an essay last night and what I WANTED to be doing was writing on a few more of these fics...particularly Somebody's Waiting For Me, I wanna finish it...) anyway...this is mostly humor again...

**

* * *

****To Lie or Not To Lie**

They'd been in Kagome's era for the better of a week now—or so the hanyou thought—it was time that he went back, even if it was only to check up briefly on how things were going at the estate. Without shards to search for and evil Narakus to worry about the hanyou had no reason to try and hurry Kagome along—other than, of course, that he was getting restless. Inuyasha had a natural wandering spirit. He had only stayed in one place when he was _very_ young, at his mother's side. After she'd died he'd moved to survive. Staying in one place was a luxury he couldn't really, on the whole, afford. Kagome's era allowed that rest…but he could only have so much of it before he became bored. (My dad actually suffered something like this on our vacation and if we weren't out doing something everyday he'd get all hyped up and restless and angry, he bit my mom's head off more times than I can count!)

But he knew a fast way to cure that…

A quick trip to the estate and the Feudal era…being gone this long there were bound to be problems springing up. A demon might've been sighted, just waiting for him to come home and pick a fight with it. Or maybe the roof was leaking over Sango and Miroku's room again and he'd have to climb the roof—which was moderately exciting—to repair it. Maybe he could travel to a silk shop and buy Kagome a nice expensive kimono…anything seemed possible.

So it was that the day after Kagome had bathed Koinu in the sink and gotten heavily splashed, Inuyasha kissed her and his son quickly goodbye and hopped through the well, promising to be back either at the end of the day or the next afternoon. Mrs. Higurashi and Kagome both mused that there had been a time when the hanyou wouldn't have even _dreamed_ of giving her that kind of space.

"Amazing how much things can change!" Mrs. Higurashi exclaimed, sighing as they walked back into the house.

Trailing behind her mother Kagome was nodding to herself silently. Her gaze was directed at Koinu in her arms. The pup's innocent, little blue eyes, bright and clear as the sky on a sunny summer day, gleamed up at her, happy and content. He yawned and the tiny little clawed fists he'd inherited from his powerful father clung more tightly to her shirt. His ears shifted and tweaked one way and then the other on her cheek as the pup laid his sleepy head against her neck. She chuckled when she heard and felt Koinu breathing her scent in, snuggling up to her a lot like his father did unconsciously at night. When she stroked his silver head the pup responded by giving her short, sweet little licks under her chin…

Kagome snickered to herself contentedly, _just like a real puppy sometimes…_

"I'm going to go lie down and nap with Koinu for a while, ok Mom?" she asked when they were in out of the cold.

"Go right ahead Kagome…" Mrs. Higurashi gave her grandson a quick tweak of the ears before she left Kagome alone to sleep.

From out in the living room, where he'd overheard her plans, Kagome's grandfatheryelled, "Whatever you do, Kagome, don't roll over on my great-grandson! You'd squish him flat like a pancake!"

She rolled her eyes, "I won't Gramps! Honestly!"

"I'm just saying, you know," he shot back apologetically, and then cleared his throat, saying what it was likely he'd been trying to get at the whole time, "That's what happened to Sota you know, your mother just went to sleep with him one day and rolled over on him. The boy's never recovered!"

"But he's not squished, Gramps!" Kagome chuckled. She had to admit that sometimes he _was_ funny.

"I know…not _physically_ anyway…"

"Gramps! Shut up! You know I can _hear _you! And that _isn't _true!" Sota spoke up then, defending himself.

Kagome shook her head at their continued nonsense, and then noticed that Koinu was squirming unhappily in her arms—he wanted to lie down now and his whimpering told her that if he didn't get his way and soon, there'd be some crying to deal with…she started to ascend the stairs, shushing him gently. The pup settled relatively easily, but Kagome couldn't keep the smirk from her face as below the family battle went on…

"Ah yes, I'm sure your lady friends would _love_ to hear _that one!"_ Gramps was chuckling.

"I swear I'd run away and never come back if you did that Gramps!"

"Yes, that _is_ a little harsh," Mrs. Higurashi was saying with a sigh, joining the fight now, "But then again, Sota could always tell those girls about your constipation problems, Dad…"

"Uh…" Gramps suddenly seemed to have lost his ammo, but only for a moment, "Well…I'm an _old,_ old man. That's a natural problem at my age. But Sota was _five_ when he did that! And I don't care what the circumstances were!"

"No, I don't think he was really _five_ when you caught him drinking out of the toilet…"

"_See Gramps!_ Mom's right, Mom remembers…" Sota interjected, but it was a little too soon for his celebration.

"He was more like seven or eight when that happened…"

Gramps burst out laughing and Sota started yelling hurriedly to try and repair the damage that had been done…but Kagome couldn't hear it anymore, she'd already closed her bedroom door and collapsed on the bed, Koinu at her side, almost immediately asleep.

* * *

Well…everything _looked_ okay… 

Casual and confident, the hanyou leapt straight up and over the walls of his own estate and into the still frozen gardens. He headed toward the house in a meandering way, threading through the various leafless trees, until, just shy of the door a scent caught him. It tickled his nose, teased his mind, and worried his soul…the hanyou restrained an abrupt shiver.

A demon was here… 

Panicked now he dashed to the house, threw open the door and yelled, "Miroku, Sango, Shippo…?"

A reddish streak flew up from seemingly out of nowhere and Inuyasha cringed at it, instinctively expecting attack, only to find Shippo crouched on his shoulder, grinning. The kit's gleaming green eyes drilled into his, unmoving, while his lips chattered away like mad.

"Inuyasha! We're all _so_ glad that you're back now! See normally we don't miss you so much but this time there was a strange demon woman that came. She smelled like you and Sesshomaru do, but she was a she and she talked softly and wore better kimono than you do—and she brushed her hair too, probably. And she wanted to talk to you but you weren't home! And Miroku and Sango tried to lie to save their boys and Kasai—but she knew better! And then Miroku and Mayuko found _weird_ tracks outside the gates that had _five_ toes!" he stopped to take one very large breath, and was about to jabber onward with his strange, warped and grammatically incorrect tale, when Inuyasha clamped his hand over the kit's mouth, silencing him.

"Where are Miroku and Sango?" he asked in a growl of annoyance.

"Where are Kagome and Koinu?" Shippo countered, his tail twitching nervously.

"They're on the other side of the well still. Now, where are Miroku and Sango?"

"Miroku went to the village to listen to what _they_ have to say about the demon…and Sango's watching the boys and Kasai."

Inuyasha nodded curtly and started to walk into the house, but as he passed a corner he bumped the shoulder that Shippo was perched on, knocking the kit off him. Shippo screeched momentarily when he fell, although there was no real damage. Then, growling about how Inuyasha was such a jerk, he followed the hanyou into the sitting room where Sango had fallen asleep, her head supported by the table. Inuyasha moved to sit opposite the demon slayer and shook her awake—with surprising gentleness, considering his usual rudeness. He understood Sango's chronic fatigue now, _much_ better since becoming a parent himself and therefore he respected the sleeping woman more now than he ever had before.

Sango stirred with a jolt, slapping the hanyou's hands away as if he were holding a knife or some such thing. Her chocolate brown eyes were dazed and hazy when she opened them to look around at the world of the waking. "Miroku!"

"Whoa! Sango, calm down, it's just me." Inuyasha choked briefly when the demon slayer lunged one still heavily muscled arm out to grab him by the collar. With one clawed hand he battered her fist away with only minor discomfort, although Sango, who was now awake and rational, was blushing profusely.

"Oh, Inuyasha!" she covered her mouth with her hands in astonished embarrassment, "I'm so sorry!"

The hanyou ignored her awkwardness and pressed straight to the point, "What happened while I was away?"

"But I already told you, Inuyasha!" Shippo squealed, leaping up and down beside the hanyou, desperately trying to be recognized. He soon regretted his interference when Inuyasha turned glowering amber eyes on him in irritation. With a shout the kitsune leapt behind Sango for protection—but on his way there he stumbled over Kasai, who had fallen asleep on the floor a short distance from Sango. The little girl immediately woke and began to sniffling and crying.

Sango didn't hesitate the moment she heard—and saw—the result of Shippo's mad dash. With a sigh she moved to scoop her daughter into her arms and rock the little child in her arms. Kasai quieted quickly once she was with her mother again. The baby's blue eyes and black hair—both almost identical to her father's with the exception of their being possessed by a female instead—were a mess. Her hair was frazzled and uncombed. There appeared to be some prayer beads caught in it, acting as a rudimentary tie to keep her hair out of her face, but it was swiftly failing. The corners of her eyes were crusty with the remnants of sleep and her nose was running. As Inuyasha watched, the little child sneezed, sniffled, and started coughing.

"What happened to her?" Inuyasha asked, suddenly _very_ happy that he had left Koinu back in Kagome's time. He didn't want to see _his_ pup get sick!

"A cold. I wanted to try using Kagome's medicines on it," Sango frowned unhappily, "But until you and she came back I had no way of knowing what to use and how much and how often…everything from her era is so amazing, but also very confusing." She cuddled the fussy and rather feverish Kasai closer to her, forgetting everything when it came to her little daughter's health and happiness.

"But—what was the demon that came through here, Sango?" he asked, again, this time more urgently. Behind Sango Shippo grumbled to himself, displeased that Inuyasha hadn't simply taken _his_ explanation…

"Oh, that…" she looked exhausted all over again, and although he never showed it Inuyasha felt a pang of guilt for having to be so blunt with the poor woman, but what was necessary was necessary!

"Well, are you gonna tell me or just sigh about it?" he snapped, crossing his arms irritated with her slow pace.

Sango frowned for a moment at his rudeness, but after so many years she knew better than to get angry with him for it and fight about it. Only Kagome could do that and possibly get anywhere…and the girl from the future didn't seem to be present at the moment…

"Where are Kagome and Koinu?"

Inuyasha's ears fell backward, his eyebrows met as one and lowered over the amber eyes, "I left them back on the other side of the well! Now would you _please…_"

"All right!" Sango cleared her throat, "It happened on the same day that you and Kagome and Koinu left for the well. Shippo started acting strangely, as if he smelled you at the door, so I opened it up to see and there was…"

"A big scary dog demon!" Shippo finished, poking his head out from behind Sango and shivering for emphasis.

"Yes, it _was_ an inuyoukai…it looked a lot like Sesshomaru!"

"But it was a _girl!"_ Shippo added, his voice screeching on the last word. Inuyasha's eyes flew between the two as they told the story, as if he were watching a ping-pong tournament.

"She was a full demon too—when Shippo and I first saw her she was in her true form, that of a large white dog. Much like Sesshomaru." She nodded again here, recalling.

"But _bigger!"_ Shippo squealed, still shivering.

Sango's chocolate colored eyes rolled sarcastically for a moment, "No, Shippo, she was _smaller,_ a lot smaller in fact."

"Well, what did the bitch want?" Inuyasha snapped, impatiently.

"Inuyasha!" Sango scolded, alarmed by his language, "Shippo is still a young youkai, and Kasai is _my_ little girl! I don't want her subjected to—"

"Oh feh," the hanyou snorted, unwilling to let the mother's tirade continue any longer, "Shippo's heard it all the time, Kasai's too young to learn it anyway, and—besides—it's accurate when talking about an inuyoukai woman and you know it!"

Sango colored briefly, apparently realizing that this time Inuyasha's "strong," language was in fact, not an insult, but simply a noun, just telling it like it was. Pursing her lips with continued reluctance she glanced to where Kasai was squirming fitfully in her arms, trying to sleep through her running nose and eyes…the little child was unlikely to have taken in the hanyou's terrible language. Relieved, she cleared her throat and allowed the subject to pass without further incidence, "She said that she'd come to talk to you, that she'd only just heard of you."

Inuyasha's ears fell flat against his head again; his face appeared livid and red, "_Only just heard of me!_ What bullshit it _that!_" he demanded, his fangs bared viciously.

"Inuyasha!" Sango scowled, "Didn't I just—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know…" he grumbled, immediately realizing that had Kagome been there she would've screamed "sit," for sure on Sango's behalf. And chances were that if he messed up too much more the demon slayer would tell "Mrs. Inuyasha" of her hanyou's major offences, and he'd be smashed into the ground just the same. Even so, the thought of someone not having heard his name in spite of his tremendous accomplishments? It was just too much…this inuyoukai bitch would've had to have crawled out of a hole in the earth about five days ago to be telling the truth! It was such an obvious lie to him…or, well, at last he hoped it was a lie, wasn't he famous all over Japan? More so than his miserable brother…right? He finished his thoughts in a rush of indignant anger, "But the bitch _had _to be lying!"

Sango sighed loudly, exasperatedly, and buried her head in her hands, shaking her head. Kasai had started to cry in her lap unhappily and squirm. Behind her Shippo peeked out long enough to snicker mischievously and say, "Inuyasha, you might be older but you're still just as dense as when I first met you."

"Shut up you little twerp!" he barked.

"_Anyway!_" Sango interrupted, tired of fighting, "She said her name was…" she paused, chewing on her lips a moment to remember and correctly pronounce the name the demon woman had given, "Taikokajin." She looked quickly to Inuyasha, searching for any obvious sign of recognition, "Mean anything to you?"

"Not a thing." He mulled the name over in his head. Taiko_ pink._ Kajin _beauty._ Taikokajin, _pink-beauty._ "I take it she was a good looking bitch?"

Sango's eyes narrowed at him in warning when she heard _that_ word again, but she said nothing. Kasai, bored and still unhappily sick with her miserable cold, had crawled away from her mother's lap and under the table. Sango's eyes flickered there nervously and, grumbling, the fatigued mother bent to reach for Kasai to pull her back out where she could more easily watch her. The little girl started to cry again, frustrated with her mother's restrictions, and Inuyasha cringed at the rising sounds. After a second she gave up and let Kasai crawl away and offered Inuyasha further information on the strange demon, "She was an albino with pink eyes."

"Yeah, and turquoise demon marks on her face. Three on each cheek." Shippo added, confidently.

Inuyasha thought that over for a moment—but he hated to admit that although he was _half_ dog demon he knew just about nothing when it came to his father's people. He knew only what his mother had told him: his father had been powerful and rich, handsome and strong, loyal and loving. She'd never told him such things as the color of the streaks on his cheeks or whether his "old man," liked to wear his hair down or pulled back, or even what she might've liked to call him informally. The only thing he'd ever heard was, "Inutaisho-sama this, that, and the other time…" besides that and mumblings of how much he resembled his great and victorious father, he knew _nothing._

Thus it was fair to assume that Taikokajin could be Queen Bitch of the dog demons for all he knew. Maybe that was what the streaks meant? But he'd never know…

After a moment he barked a new question, "What did she say she wanted from me?"

"To 'talk.'" Sango snorted sarcastically. Shippo and Inuyasha repeated her snort of disbelief at the same time.

"Oh! Oh! Sango! Tell her about the five-toed paw prints!"

"Oh yes," the demon slayer nodded, "Outside, at the gate, Miroku ad Mayuko found strange paw prints. They thought at first that Taikokajin would've left them behind, because they were like dog footprints, only _much_ larger…"

"But, let me guess, with five toes?"

She nodded, "Yes, we wanted to know if you knew of anything like that…any demon that would leave prints like that. Would an inuyoukai leave marks like that?"

Inuyasha frowned, distinctly remembering Sesshomaru's four-toed paws from his true form. He shook his head, "Not unless they were deformed…" he looked to where Shippo had almost completely reappeared from his hiding and asked, "Did you scent the tracks, Shippo?"

"Yes, but it was faint." The kit swallowed nervously, "It smelled weird…like nothing I've ever smelled before…the closest thing to it would've been a dog, or a wolf…" he chuckled nervously, "Or even a cat or a raccoon!"

Inuyasha scoffed, "Well, we can all tell that your nose is accurate!"

"Hey! That's not fair!" the kitsune pouted, "_You_ go out and smell it, Inuyasha, and see if _you_ can do any better!"

"Feh," Inuyasha stood up, glaring at the kit, "Challenge accepted, runt!"

Shippo squealed and hid behind Sango again, shivering.

* * *

"Hi Mom, I'm home!" Sota tossed his book bag down beside the door carelessly. Just behind him another young man, taller and lankier and with lighter hair than Sota, entered the house, a grin from ear to ear. Sota took another step or two forward and then called out a warning, "Where's Kagome? Tell her and Koinu to stay clear of the living room, kay, cuz I got Taro over to play some video games!" When no immediate answer came both youths kicked off their shoes and strolled into the Higurashi household just in time to almost crash into Sota's hurrying mother. 

"Shh!" she hissed at her second-born impatiently, eyes flicking nervously to Taro behind him.

"What? What Mom? What is it?"

"Kagome and your nephew are asleep on the couch!"

Sota blinked, confusedly, "But…they were asleep when I left for classes too. How long _do_ they sleep?" behind him Taro snickered.

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head, frowning, "Koinu woke her up an hour ago hungry. So she fed him down here and then they both fell back asleep. I sent Gramps out to clean the storage houses and the garage because he wouldn't stop complaining about not being able to hear the evening news when I made him turn it down so low…" she threw Sota and Taro behind him a threatening glare, "If you two can't keep quiet than I'll send you both out to help him…"

"No problem!" Sota grinned cheerily, but his words were already too loud for his mother's liking and she scowled, stepping in front of him again and rephrasing her warning.

"If you don't stay quiet Sota—well, I won't take any of the calls you get tonight or tomorrow. I'll tell each and every one of them that they have the wrong number…or worse…"

Sota gulped and nodded solemnly, "Don't worry Mom, I got it under control!" he elbowed Taro obligingly and then both young men pushed past Mrs. Higurashi and into the living room. As they neared the room Sota realized with a jolt that Taro was going to find Koinu _very_ strange…in fact, even as he thought this, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Taro's light brown eyes glimmering with amusement.

"Dude! You're an _uncle_! You never told me that! I mean, I remember your older sister from when we were growing up but…" Taro's voice had grown too loud for Sota's comfort and he shushed his friend hurriedly. Taro lowered his voice and continued what he'd been saying in a whisper. "…and I never heard what happened to her, wasn't she always a babe anyway? And _Puppy?_ Why would she name your nephew _puppy?"_

Sota pursed his lips; his mind was working a thousand miles an hour. _To lie or not to lie, that is the question._

(Lie?)

He pondered it, wondering if Taro's intellect was too superior to fall for Sota's usual, "He's American," lie.

(Truth?)

Was it possible to tell the truth? He doubted it, Taro would think it was crazy and spit in his face, or, worse, he'd tell the story to everyone else and they'd think Sota had been dropped on his head when he was an infant…

(Lie!)

And if the chicks thought _that_ about him he'd never get another date…

(LIE!)

He sighed and rolled his eyes, degrading the story he was about to tell, trying to convince Taro that he thought it was just stupid. "Yea, my sister went to America some years ago, you know? I don't really know why—I mean she didn't learn much there!" he scoffed to make it convincing, but didn't risk judging Taro's expression just yet, "And anyway, while she was there she met this guy—my brother in law now—and they're madly in love and all that and a few months ago they had a baby." He shrugged and finally risked looking to Taro's face.

His friend seemed to have bought most of it, but there remained a look of steady confusion on his face. He blinked twice and then asked, "But, Sota, why would they name the baby _Puppy?"_

"Oh, _that…_" Sota tried to hide the nervous gulp his throat muscles resorted to spasmodically, "See, I forgot to tell you that the guy she married—my brother in law—has a rare, uh, _American_ disease that makes him look more like a dog than a person…"

"_What!"_ Taro gasped, and then bit his lip and cringed as he realized how loud his voice had been.

"I'm serious! It's not like he walks on four legs or anything, but he has—uh—unusual ears and teeth. And their baby inherited the same genetic disease. So they named him Puppy."

Taro was shaking his head in disbelief, "If that's true, Sota, what is the disease called, and how come I've never heard of it before?"

Sota forced the shaking in his voice away as he thought fast and blurted, "Honestly, Taro, are you an expert on Americans? I don't think so, and the disease, for your information, is called…" he thought like mad, _dog, dog, what is something he wouldn't know? Oh I've got it!_ "…It's called _Canis lupitus._" (A/N: Canis in Latin I think means dog, it's the scientific classification of all of the dog family, Sota has just said, "Wolf," actually though, not dog, by taxonomic standards. Domestic dogs are actually called _Canis familiaris. _I wanted to use that but "Lupitus" sounds better than "Familiaritus.")

"Canis lupitus?" Taro repeated, mulling the strange words over again. The expression settling over his face remained confused but Sota was starting to feel calmer, more confident. He'd always been a pretty decent liar, and he was pretty sure that Taro believed him now.

"Yea, canis lupitus, try not to stare, got it? Now, you wanna play or not?" he snapped, irritably, and when Taro nodded the two young men proceeded to the living room.

Lying across the length of the couch was Kagome, wearing a red robe that reminded Sota suspiciously of Inuyasha's fire rat haori, which he'd noticed that Inuyasha hadn't worn on this visit…that was the first thing he noticed, the second thing was that her long, milk-colored legs were exposed from just above the knee all the way down…and Taro was staring at them as if he were one of those starving children that your parents tell you about from Africa and Kagome's legs were fresh, steaming moist cinnamon rolls, right out of the oven.

Appalled, Sota slugged Taro, and not gently either. With a gasp Taro clutched his ribs and looked at Sota with the outrage of the innocent. "What did I do!" he choked, his eyes were rings of red with pain and watery tears from the blow.

"Oh come off it! You hentai!" Sota turned his back on Taro and started getting the Playstation 2 ready.

"What!" Taro gasped, still blithely unaware of the way he'd been staring, "Your sister's hot and you know it Sota! You can't hit me for staring at her!"

"Say anything else and I'll tell her husband about it, Taro, and you don't want that to happen…" Sota grinned momentarily at the thought, and added, "He has fangs, remember Canis lupitus…?"

"Oh…" Taro had seemingly lost interest in the thought of video games for the moment as he was still staring at Kagome's red-clothed sleeping form. After a minute he cleared his throat quietly and whispered, "I see what you mean by Canis lupitus…the baby looks just like a puppy…"

Sota paused and turned round to look for Koinu and couldn't help but smirk at the pup's cuteness. Sleeping on his stomach on Kagome's chest he was wriggling in quite a puppyish manner, the little white ears were twitching in random directions. The pup seemed to be mostly unclothed, Sota thought, for he could see a bare shoulder protruding from the red robe Kagome was shrouded in. The thought that maybe his older sister wasn't wearing anything else beneath the robe made him blanch, but it was quickly swept from his mind when he spotted the socks on her feet and, barely visible, the edges of some purple shorts.

"Well, are we going to play or not, Sota, or should I slap you next for staring at your own sister…"

Sota blinked and scowled at Taro, "Yea we're going to play and that was _not_ funny…"

But then, from the front door, the shrill sound of the doorbell ringing reached Sota and Taro's ears. Both cringed and looked to where Kagome and Koinu were sleeping. Nothing seemed to have changed and both youths sighed with relief…and then the doorbell rang again, somehow louder and shriller this time than before.

Koinu squirmed and jerked awake, blinking his little blue eyes fuzzily. He waited, silently, for a moment, while Kagome stirred as well, breathing deeply and adjusting Koinu's little body higher on her own instinctually, and then he started to push himself up a little on his hands. The ears atop his head shifted exactly like a dog's, seeking the source of the noise that had woken him…

It came a last time, the doorbell, but was cut short when Mrs. Higurashi hurriedly answered the door.

And then, wrinkling his little face unhappily, Koinu made a growling, whimpering sound, sniffling pathetically. That sound forced Kagome into wakefulness.

Sota and Taro smiled at her when she sat up, trying to calm Koinu down. "Evening!" Sota greeted her cheerily. "Hi Mrs…uh," Taro gave up with titles almost immediately and resorted to grinning stupidly instead.

Kagome looked from Sota to Taro, confusedly. She clutched Koinu to her a little more protectively. Taro was clearly an outsider to the family, and she wondered, with a jolt, what Sota had told the other young man to get him to accept Koinu's appearance… "Yea, she lives 500 years in the past with a half-dog demon named Inuyasha. Do you want to meet their pup? No? But he has cute white ears! You sure? Okay then, how about some rice and chicken for dinner, eh?"

She was about to ask them what time it was and begin with simple pleasantries when Mrs. Higurashi's voice floated over to all three of them from the front door, "Kagome!" it sounded strained, tight, and nervous.

"Yes, Mom?"

"You have company!"

Her heart rolled over once inside her ribcage. "Is it Inu—uh…" she looked to Taro and Sota nervously and changed her words immediately, "Is it my husband?"

"No…" and then Kagome's breath caught in her throat as she anticipated her mother's next announcement, "It's Hojo, he's come for a visit!"

Endnote: Looks like I'm not going to make 9:30 exactly... oh well... THANK YOU ALL who reviewed! Every little one helps and encourages! THANK YOU! You guys keep me in line...you never know how much you help... THANK YOU! _Heather_ You are TOO smart...(leans forward to whisper) shh...don't tell anyone! Of course you may not be exactly right...(grins) I reserve the right to outright lie to you and surprise you in the end as authoress (winks) ... _fanfiction1_ hehehe...hmm... what do you think? (grins) and in answer neko, I think, means "cat" in Japanese. _kirarakitty_ Thank you! Hmm...as for your offer of a gift, depends on how old they are...(snickers, evil wink) _Mad-4-Manga_ I hope you recover your sleep soon! And, WOW! I didn't know you wanted the sess/rin fic so badly...(see what I mean about being short so I can write on other stuff?) _Angel_ Yes, I AM confused...but it's good to hear from you! NefCanuck (and all others who loved Hojo's reappearance!) Just wait until the next chapter! (squeals!):

_"I'm sorry Kagome, I just had some free time, and I thought that…" he shrugged and, suddenly stuttering, plastered a warm grin to his face and thrust forward his usual gift to her…a big box of Pampers. _

_Kagome blinked, "Uh…" _

_"I hope that these will fit him!" Hojo began cheerily, "I bought them a little bit too big for you intentionally. I don't know how old your baby is so I just got something for young toddlers because that means that one day he will be able to fit into them! That way they can't be useless because he's outgrown that size already…"_

Gotta go! See ya next time!


	11. Footprints and Baby Ears

**Disclaimer:** Nope...

**A/N:** Okay...Now Kagome gets to deal with Hojo some more (And solves absolutely nothing! In fact she makes it worse! You're all going toscream and HATE me for the cliffy (grins))and Inuyasha examines the five-toed footprint. Next chapter Inuyasha finally meets his pink-eyed cousin Taikokajin. Stay tuned! And with this one here, be prepared to scream and hate me...no one dies or anything but I leave you hanging...(nods) yes you WILL hate me...hehehe...so consider yourself warned and read! (winks)

**

* * *

****Footprints and Baby Ears**

Inuyasha knelt low, close to the ground. Despite the crunchy snow and the chilled air, he hadn't worn anything on his hands or his feet to keep them warm. Sango and Shippo could only shake their heads at what seemed to them to be stupidity, but Inuyasha hardly felt the slightest sting to the bottoms of his feet at all. By design his half demon characteristics included very tough outer foot soles. The hanyou hated wearing shoes—had _always_ hated wearing shoes as a matter of fact. Even when he was nothing but a tiny pup his mother had had an impossible task of keeping socks or shoes on his feet. As soon as she'd forced them on him her hanyou son would rip them off again and proceed to chew them to pieces…

The print—only a few inches shy of the tip of his nose—was exactly like a dog's, or a cat's, except that it had _five_ toes around the central pad, not the usual four. The hanyou expected to scent a cat or a dog or even a bear or a weasel. All of them possessed odors that were related to one another, yet clearly distinct to a sharp nose like that of an inuyoukai's. But what he smelled when he took the deep breath in and exposed his lungs and delicate scent organs to the print, _wasn't_ any of those animal's odors…

He had never smelled such a creature before. It wasn't like any of the other animal's scents at all—instead it was something _completely _different. Although Inuyasha would never know it he could've found a scent that was a lot like it in the continent of Africa, thousands of miles away: the hyena. But even that scent wasn't like this one completely. There was just no comparison…it was something brand new in his experience.

A chill raced down his spine.

The hanyou drew in a second sniff at it, and then a third, each time hoping to make sense of it…and each time failing.

"Well?" Shippo queried impatiently from Sango's shoulders.

"Well nothing!" Inuyasha huffed and stood up from the paw print. His mind was muddled, he was terrible confused. What was he supposed to tell them? That Shippo had been right! He'd rather die first…

"The scent is too old…and too many people have touched it and been around for me to get a clear idea of what it was." At least _some_ of what he'd said was true…

"So what Shippo said was right…?" Sango ventured uncertainly, bouncing a still very grouchy Kasai in her arms.

The hanyou growled with annoyance and refused to answer her; instead he looked toward the village and scented the wind. Miroku was coming. Saved by the monk! Without giving the kit or the demon slayer any warning, Inuyasha leapt away from them to meet the approaching Miroku, the hanyou's sensitive ears could already hear the monk's staff jangling.

When Miroku crested the last hill between himself and Inuyasha's estate, the snow steadily crunching under his feet. At a slight sound he looked up abruptly, just in time to see a flash of silvered hair and yellow and gold kimono fly through the air to land directly beside him. When he found himself staring, blinkingly, at Inuyasha, he had to force the image of his hanyou friend into his brain to believe it—Inuyasha wasn't wearing the Fire Rat haori! Miroku hardly recognized him!

"Inuyasha—you're back!" he grinned swiftly, "So…was Kagome's grandfather pleased or horrified?" before Inuyasha had left the monk and his wife had betted against one another on the matter. Miroku thought the old man would accept Koinu's rather inhuman appearance easily while Sango had thought that he would only accept Koinu because he was family. But it would be begrudgingly she'd insisted, because humans and demons were generally, as she'd been taught all her life, repulsed by each other.

But Inuyasha was not going to answer such a trivial question as that! "Later." He growled, "What do the villager's say?"

"Oh," Miroku sighed regretfully, "Little that we didn't already know, I'm afraid."

"Tell me anyway!" the hanyou snapped, impatiently. His amber eyes were flashing with some strange emotion that Miroku wasn't certain he could read, but he thought it might've been akin to worry. "I haven't been here for a long time and I need to know!"

Miroku nodded pensively but, as they neared the gates of the estate, he looked quickly to here Sango with Kasai in her arms and Shippo on her shoulder were standing—obviously near to the footprint. He locked his gaze with the hanyou's impatient glare and asked, "Did you scent the print?"

Inuyasha's ears fell backward, a sure sign he was going to blow, "_Yes…"_ he snarled, "Now, answer _my_ question…"

Miroku ignored Inuyasha's threatening tone and moved to stand beside Sango's tired form, giving their daughter a worried glance as he passed by, a silent question exchanged between the experienced parents. When Sango answered with a silent smile of gratitude Miroku leaned in and kissed her swiftly on the lips, and then brushed his hand and fingers gently through Kasai's dark hair. "The villagers say that the day you and Kagome and Koinu all left, a large white dog passed through the village. Later that day they also saw a grayish wolf traveling through the forest between your estate and them. Both demons disappeared quickly and gave them no trouble. That is all they have to tell."

_All that waiting for nothing…_ Inuyasha sighed in exasperation. His amber gaze flew to the track behind Miroku and Sango's forms. He felt a strange sense of foreboding, and in a second he'd made up his mind. The feral, golden gaze lightened and he nodded once slightly to himself, solidifying his decision.

He looked up at Sango and Miroku, as well as the two children that were either in the adult's arms, or perched on a shoulder, "I'll stay here for tonight with you. If that pink-eyed bitch wants to "talk" to me she can." He snorted sarcastically, "But I'm going to do the "talking" with Tetsuseiga, of course."

"What about Kagome and Koinu?" Shippo queried worriedly from Miroku's shoulders now.

"She's safe with her family…" he shrugged, "Tomorrow morning I'll go back if nothing unusual has happened." He prayed that whatever was wrong would hurry and present itself so that he wouldn't have to worry about Kagome or Koinu's safety upon their return…he frowned to himself at the thought. "Let's go inside."

* * *

"Hojo?" Sota gasped, gaping at his sister for a moment after the shocked silence had passed after their mother's initial announcement. Then, abruptly, his face colored and he avoided his sister's gaze desperately. Yes, he remembered now, he'd mentioned to the still dreamy-eyed, infatuated Hojothat his older sister would likely behome soon, and just the day after, Kagome, Inuyasha, and Koinu had arrived to visit he'd spewed the news all around the campus. He'd edited some of it for Hojo's ears, leaving out the husband and child bit because he knew full well how much the poor guy had beenobsessed with Kagome…now he knew that Hojo must've tracked down his other friends and gotten the information from them about the husband and new baby…but it hadn't stopped him from coming round at all! 

"Who's Hojo?" Taro asked, looking from Kagome to Sota confusedly, "He isn't that same guy from on campus that was asking you about Kagome,is he?"

"Yes, he is…" Sota muttered ashamedly, risking a glance to Kagome just in time to cringe as she moved toward him—he expected to be slapped in the face: five, four, three, two, one…! He felt his arms pulled outward and a strange weight passed to him. With a blink he took the burden and gaped stupidly when he realized that Kagome was handing him Koinu.

The baby looked up fussily at his uncle and his ears turned backward. The whimpering began to increase and Sota felt a surge of panic. He looked up and called his sister's name just as he saw her messy red-robed form vanish from the room.

"Sota?" Taro asked, the look in his face very much mirroring the panic that Kagome's little brother felt, "He's starting to cry…"

Awkwardly Sota adjusted his nephew and moved toward where Kagome had been sitting on the couch and plopped his butt down. Cautiously, and murmuring uncertainly to himself, Sota placed the pup on his knee and began bouncing him, making soothing shushing noises at the same time. The pup almost immediately quieted, his blue eyes wide and brilliant, taking in the new experience like a sponge. He started to coo.

"Dude!" Taro chuckled, racing over to join Sota now that the situation was under control again, "You're a natural! You gotta show this to your girlfriends!"

Out in the kitchen things were far from "under control," the tension in the room between Mrs. Higurashi, who was nervously trying to prepare and serve tea to her sudden and unannounced guest, and Hojo, who was sitting at the table wordlessly and stiff, was palpable. When Kagome entered the room that level of tension and anxiety grew tenfold easily.

Seeing her enter, Hojo stood hurriedly, bowing like a slave. "Kagome!" he breathed, his dark, handsome eyes taking her in, _all_ of her, including the messy hair, the aged, matured features, the fullness of her figure, and the strange red robe she wore. He also noted swiftly but with importance, that underneath the red robe she was wearing a breastfeeding shirt—white and thin…he felt a tremor of dizziness pass through him. Thinking about her breasts made him feel somewhere between queasy and excited. At the same time he felt a thrill of jealousy directed at her husband, though they'd never met. His body, every muscle with the exception of the ones in his face, tightened with nervousness, snapping taut.

But none of these rushing, rabid feelings and impressions were exposed at all. Hojo kept his secrets.

"Hello Hojo…" Kagome began, shifting nervously on her white-socked feet, "I'm sorry for being so messy…I didn't expect you to come by so soon!" internally she added _and without calling_, restraining a frown.

"I'm sorry Kagome, I just had some free time, and I thought that…" he shrugged and, suddenly stuttering, plastered a warm grin to his face and thrust forward his usual gift to her…a big box of Pampers.

Kagome blinked, "Uh…"

"I hope that these will fit him!" Hojo began cheerily, "I bought them a little bit too big for you intentionally. I don't know how old your baby is so I just got something for young toddlers because that means that one day he _will_ be able to fit into them! That way they can't be useless because he's outgrown that size already…"

"Thank you Hojo!" she reached for the Pampers, smiling as genuinely as possible, mentally realizing that the diapers would actually fit Koinu now…_sheesh, he sure is growing fast…_

Mrs. Higurashi set down some tea and teacups for both her daughter and the unexpected guest. "Here, drink up! Feel at home!" she declared, smiling just a little too enthusiastically before adding, "Kagome, I'm going to go check up on Sota…"

"Okay Mom." The two women exchanged quick knowing glances and then the elder of the two vanished down the hall. Once she was gone Kagome hesitantly sat down in the seat opposite Hojo and began pouring the tea as casually as she could.

"So…how have you been, Hojo? What have I missed?" she asked nervously.

"Well," he stopped and thought carefully as she poured his tea patiently, "Koshi has gotten married to Rini—that was just six months ago…" (A/N: Yes! To those that read my other story SWFM I DID reuse the name, but assume it's another person...kay? (sheepish look))

"Married? Those two!" she gasped, caught off guard, "But Rini couldn't _stand_ Koshi!"

Hojo grinned, genuinely now, "She was wrong, I guess. Sometimes things change, you know how it goes!"

Tensely Kagome agreed, laughing and waving one hand through the air lightly, "Yea, yea, some people…" she raked her mind for another thought, another thing to talk about, desperately. If Hojo wanted to see Koinu she thought she might panic—how was she supposed to explain his little dog ears, blue eyes, and silver-white hair! Gods help her…

"How were the graduation parties? I was really sorry that I didn't get to attend any of them, I had the stomach flu…" A lie, a complete and utter lie, but something to talk about! What had she _really_ been doing when they were graduationg? Defeating Naraku, resisting the urge and the desire to grab Inuyasha and either throttle him or tie him to a bed to show him what Kikyo, being dead, would never be able to give him... She blushed briefly avoidedHojo's gaze, opting instead to stir in some sugar to her tea.

"Those things?" Hojo frowned, easing up a little more still, "Everyone got drunk. Yuki ended up making out with Taro."

"Taro? Taro as in my little brother Sota's friend Taro?" She blinked, _the guys I left Koinu with?_

"Yes," Hojo chuckled, "That Taro."

"Wow, what a small world he's—" she stopped herself from saying, 'In the other room with Sota,' because she knew that that would lead Hojo straight back there where he would spot Koinu and immediately know something fishy was going on. Panicking, she brought the tea to her lips and sipped noisily, and then pretended to cough harshly, choking.

Hojo stared at her worriedly during the fit, "Are you all right, Kagome?"

"Yes, I just choked on my tea a little." She set the teacup back down, swiftly ignoring the stuff again. "Anyway," another topic, another topic… "How is your life on campus doing?"

He shrugged, apparently uninterested, "Fine…" his eyes took on a darker, more serious tone and he leaned closer to her, in spite of the table between them, "Kagome…where have you been all this time? I was always so worried about you! You were always so sick in school, but you look in fine health now! I'm so glad that you got better! And better enough, I should say, you managed to have a baby! I hope the pain wasn't terrible…" he stared at her with sympathy in his warm, dark eyes.

_That_ was something she could talk about, "Yes, actually, it was quite horrid!"

He nodded emphatically, "Did your…husband…" he seemed to choke on the word, she noted, "Make you do it naturally?"

She almost laughed at the thought. Inuyasha wouldn't have made her suffer even if he'd felt it was better for Koinu! The hanyou couldn't stand her discomfort because he was so keenly in tune to it. He _smelled_ it for heaven's sake! She'd been the one to push the midwife and her remedies and aide away, not Inuyasha at all!

"No, In—my husband can't stand to see me in pain. But I was actually the one who chose to birth at home…"

Hojo looked as if he might faint, "At home!" he blinked, "But what if something had gone wrong?"

She almost blurted that Inuyasha would've been able to smell it or hear it before it became bad, but caught herself just in time. "We were prepared to go to the hospital if there was a problem," another lie, "But it was pretty smooth, or so they tell me…"

Mrs. Higurashi entered the room then—and Kagome nearly screamed when she realized that her mother was carrying Koinu in her arms! "Well, well now," she was cooing peaceably, "There, there…" as she reached the table where the couple sat, Mrs. Higurashi passed the pup to Kagome, her face tight and nervous. As she took her son into her arms and Mrs. Higurashi left the kitchen again, Kagome realized that her mother had very smartly pulled over a light blue woolen cap, covering the pup's ears and most of his silvery hair.

Shaking, Kagome broke out into a relieved grin and held her son up for Hojo to see. "Hojo, this is Koinu," as she spoke she tickled her son, making him squeal and squirm, "And Koinu, this is Hojo."

Hojo took in the baby's appearance, spotting a few of the Higurashi genes in the child's face, but overall seeing a stranger's features. The baby clearly took after his father. Koinu was wearing nothing but the cap and his diaper, which made the child look _very_ comical…when the baby stopped giggling from his mother's tickles, Hojo noted with a jolt that the baby had _blue_ eyes…

"His eyes!" he blurted, and then frowned at his own outburst, quickly recovering, "He's gorgeous Kagome! When he grows up he'll be such a little heartbreaker I'll bet! And his eyes…they're _blue!_ How wonderful! You and your husband must be _so_ proud!"

Kagome laughed, tightly, "Yes, oh In—uh, my husband, _is_ very proud. Most people call Koinu the spitting image of his father…"

"Oh," Hojo scooted his tea further aside to reach for the baby, "What made you choose such a strange name as Koinu?"

Kagome blinked, panicking, as Hojo took Koinu into his arms and cradled him, pinching the baby's cheeks and nose. _What in the seven hells am I going to tell him about that!_

"Oh, it's nothing," she lied a second later, "Just that my husband is a big fan of dogs." She'd always thought that she was a lousy liar…but Hojo seemed to believe her, although she felt certain he must be able to hear her heartbeat's panicked rhythm…but she'd been hanging around Inuyasha too long, Hojo was mortal, not part demon! But then again, he was so busy making faces at Koinu that he'd hardly spared her a glance when she'd spoken at all! She allowed herself to calm down a little, sighing slightly, to watch Hojo's interaction with her little son.

Despite the fact that usually Koinu was nervous with others that smelled plainly different from his mother and father, he seemed to instantly like Hojo. The pup batted at Hojo's nose, giggling, the little claws micro-centimeters from the other's flesh. Kagome cringed inwardly at the sight, realizing that the talons were obviously a little long for a normal baby's fingernails…surely Hojo would notice…?

He did.

Looking up Hojo smiled uncertainly and asked, "Wow! He has some long fingernails on him!" his face became genuinely interested then and he leaned closer to her, holding Koinu up against his shoulder carefully. Kagome was surprised to note how easily Hojo had taken to holding the baby—he was a natural! "Is it true," Hojo asked, eagerly, "That when they're born that their fingernails are so long they need to be trimmed right away? Babies, I mean…" he bounced Koinu, who was squealing happily against the other's shoulder.

"Uh…" Kagome tried to remember what she'd heard, and what she'd seen with Sango's children. She wasn't sure. But she _did_ know that Koinu had been born without those claws, indeed, he'd come out with barely a nail to protect his fragile fingertips. She had to assume that that was a trait of inuyoukai passed on from Inuyasha, but she couldn't be sure…

Frowning uncertainly, Kagome shrugged, "I'm not sure, Hojo." She felt her heart suddenly begin to race frantically when she saw Koinu squirm in her old friend's hold and reach those little trouble-making clawed hands to his head…reaching for the little, light blue woolen cap. The cap which was the only thing hiding his most obviously inhuman traits—the tiny, down-covered white ears.

She rose to her feet and abruptly walked behind Hojo to grab her son away from him, which took both males by surprise. As Kagome's firm grip surrounded her son's little frame and pulled him away from the warm stranger he whimpered unhappily, and as Kagome withdrew the tiny child from Hojo's arms, her old friend threw her a confused, almost hurt expression. Yet despite this the pup easily left Hojo's arms, he didn't fight Kagome at all.

As Kagome straightened out Koinu in her arms, distracting him from the cap, Hojo cleared his throat and asked the question that had been lingering on his tongue, like a bad taste, ever since he'd learned from Shina that Sota's older sister had gotten married to a "weird foreigner," and had had a baby. When he'd first heard it he hadn't thought she was telling the truth—it just didn't sound like the Kagome _he_ knew from high school! But Mrs. Higurashi had confirmed it when he'd called earlier…and now he _had_ to know, having seen the child himself…

"Kagome?" saying her name his voice trembled, and the tone was suddenly different from that of the conversation moments ago, and that brought the young mother's attention swiftly from her son to her companion.

"Yes Hojo?" she sensed his nervousness, the need, the anticipation, the tension…if she'd tried to breathe at that moment she'd surely choke on it the stuff was so thick!

"Is…how…" he stopped, frowning for once, the expression was a stranger on his face. _How the hell am I supposed to say it!_ Without thinking anymore he squeezed his dark eyes closed in frustration and blurted, "Your husband is a _very_ lucky man!"

Kagome blushed and looked away, focusing on Koinu again. "Thank you," she mumbled as kindly as she could, tensely. _I'm sorry Hojo! I wish you could find someone else to be crazy about!_

"And…" he was still frowning, still anxious and full of tension. She even thought she saw his hands shaking when he moved them slightly, "I wish that _I_ could've been as lucky as he was…with you…" he turned his eyes away as he spoke, frozen and feeling suddenly sick to his stomach at the confession.

Kagome stared at him, pitying the poor man, and at once longing to run away…but then her gaze landed on Koinu, who was struggling and mumbling in his baby language innocently—and pulling the little light blue cap straight off his head! The little white ears twitched adorably, but Kagome could feel nothing except horror as her son promptly dropped the cap to the floor.

Covering Koinu's ears with her chin as best as she could Kagome knelt down just as Hojo looked toward where she'd been standing, still shaking from his confession…and saw nothing. "Kagome?" he queried, his voice quivering. He looked over the side of the table and to the ground below, blinking in consternation. He looked microseconds too late to see Kagome's frantic secret, as she pulled the cap right back over the pup's head brusquely—which made Koinu cry unrestrainedly. But although Hojo missed the ears he plainly saw the messy strands of rather abundant silver-white hair.

_The baby's father must **really** be American—the child has blonde…well, sort of blonde hair…_ he shrugged the unusual color aside and tried to smile genuinely at Kagome as she stood up from reapplying the cap. "Babies!" he shook his head at her and waggled a finger at the still crying and fussing Koinu. "You keep your clothes on now, kiddo, you hear?"

Koinu's blue eyes, matching the color almost of the cap on his head, met up with the stranger's and for a moment he quieted, observing…and then immediately looked away, bored, and resumed crying and reaching to grasp the annoying thing on his head…he wanted the thing off! Why couldn't his mother see that! Instead of understand his predicament, Kagome swatted his hands away from the cap, gently but firmly. The pup's squalling and frustration increased tenfold. Under his cap Kagome could see his little dog ears straining to move…

She frowned and looked to Hojo apologetically, but her stance was stiff and still very tense, "Hojo, I'm sorry…let me take him and—"

"Well I think it's just fairly obvious, Kagome," Hojo smiled, amused again and more at ease once more, Kagome hated that he could do such a thing while she couldn't, "I think it's the hat. He just wants it off…and since he's not wearing much else…" Hojo gingerly reached forward, his fingers ready to aide the pup in his quest to rid himself of the cap…

Kagome made a squeaking noise of panic and pushed his questing hand away. "I think I'd better take him…"

"Oh, Kagome, I'm…" he suddenlyappeared as if he might burst into tears, and looked away, shame blossoming on his face, "This is because of me, isn't it? This is because I've made you uncomfortable…" he looked at her pleadingly and Kagome felt a lump grow in her throat for him in sympathy, _if only I could tell him the truth! But he'd never believe me…_ she swallowed nervously. What should she say…? What _could_ she say!

"No, Hojo," she shook her head gently, and pushed Koinu's little clawed hands free of his cap again, making the pup scream as if she'd slugged him instead, "It's because…" the words might've slipped past her lips then but Koinu's crying had become too loud for her to stand. She sighed reluctantly, "Excuse me a moment…" she turned on her heel and walked out of the kitchen, toward the living room. The moment she was out of sight, Kagome tugged Koinu's blue cap off and tickled his ears. Almost immediately the pup's cries subsided into small whimpers. Instinctually he snuggled close to her, burrowing into her neck. She reached the living room where Sota and Taro were now playing video games with a vengeance and set Koinu gently down beside them. The boys hardly spared her a look all this time until she reached up and turned off the TV in front of them.

"Hey!" they shouted in a chorus.

"I need you two to watch Koinu for me."

Taro and Sota looked to the pup with something like horror, and then Sota's face wrinkled with an unreadable emotion. "We're supposed to watch after Koinu _again_ while _you_ are out there flirting with Hojo!" he shook his head in outrage, "I'm going to tell Inuyasha!" the moment the hanyou's name slipped from his lips Sota colored and looked to Taro, guiltily.

"Who?" Taro asked, exactly as Sota had feared he would—but before Kagome could yell at him Sota came up with a good lie and blurted it.

"That's my nickname for her husband, Taro." Sota rolled his eyes to make it convincing, "His real name is a really boring thing from America—John. But you know, because of the disease, I call him Inuyasha."

"Oh." Taro seemed to buy it, and, trying to hide his embarrassment, Sota looked back to Kagome, scowling.

"I _will_ tell him!"

"Good for you, Sota." Kagome half-growled, rolling her eyes, "But just watch Koinu for a little while, okay? Just long enough that I can tell Hojo—"

"Kagome!" Sota interrupted her mid-sentence, gasping, his eyes huge and stunned. Beside him Taro looked perplexed, and Kagome realized with a start that both of the boys were focused on something, or _someone_, behind her…

She turned just in time to hear Hojo clearing his throat, and asking, with a quavering, nervous voice, "Uh…Kagome…why…what's…" he took a deeper, quivering breath, "What's wrong with your baby's ears…?"

From his place on the floor, amidst the stunned adults, Koinu squealed gleefully, kicking his feet as if for joy. Seemingly he adored that he had caused them all so much trouble. His little face broke out in a toothless, fangless grin of baby pride.

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Endnote: HA! How's THAT for an ending? You guys are going to scream at me (sticks out her tongue) Kay...here we go... THANK YOU to ALL Reviewers _FYI IY is mine_, _SerenaClearwater,_ _cool-chick-rae_ (actually there really IS a disease that covers people's faces in hair, all over the face inparticularly. They call people afflicted with it "wolf boy" and stuff...But I don't know what it's called, a gene gets switched on for hair growth that shouldn't be on but is anyway...), _kirarakitty_(the 17 year old sounds okay(evil grin)),_andarial_ (you're probably right(pouts) I'm sorry, thank you for telling me), _meetingreality_, _Duel Battle and War_ The Tasmanian Tiger is a marsupial, and being that they're more primitive and ancient mammals I believe you, probably do have five toes (hehe, or did?) _NefCanuck,_ _The Moonless Night_ Thank you for such along review! YAYS, _InuPhoenix,_ _fanfiction1 _You got it, _Mad-4-Manga_ yes Taro is a pervert...hehehe... 

Wow! I'm done...sorry I'm being shorter than usual, EVERY review is good! EVERY one is encouragement and appreciated! But I gotta get SWFM finished...and I gotta finish this story's next chapter too...but I have enough of the next update ready that I can give you a quick peek:

_Inuyasha restrained a shudder, "What makes you think, bitch, that I give a rat's ass about the clan?" he bristled suddenly, finding a memory from his past to fuel his abrupt fury. "I mean, they sure as **hell** didn't care when the **great** Inutaisho of the **wonderful** dog demon clan died, leaving his mate, my mother, alone and defenseless with his **half**-demon son!" his fists curled in a sudden rage, ready to reach and draw Tetsuseiga. "You assholes left her to be murdered! And me to starve!"_

Yes, the next chapter uses the word "bitch" a lot...to anyone who takes offense at that it IS correct when Inuyasha is talking to an Inuyoukai female...though he could be using it both ways of course...anyway...I'm done for now...gotta write some more...Until next time! THANK YOU ALL!


	12. Demon Cousins and the Moon

**Disclaimer:** No I do not own him...Kagome does (snickers)

**A/N:** I know how all of you want to see how our dear and most beloved "Hobo" is taking the sight of Koinu's puppy ears, but I'm just afraid that you won't be seeing that here...(anticipates the rotting fruit already and ducks) not till next chapter anyway. (frowns) I'm not happy with it yet, so I may have to rewrite it...(pouts) but rest assured, chances are it'll be posted before too long (winks) I keep a steady pattern of updating if I can, as most of you have probably noticed. I'm kinda in a hurry again today, so I'm only going to edit/proofread this chapter a little bit, then move on. I want to update _I Miss You_ today too becuase tonight I have plans with a friend so updating might not happen otherwise...Ah! Wait! **_Cursing is upped a notch this chappy, you have been warned _**...well enough of me grumbling, right? (goes to proofread her chapter)...(winks) that's the cue for you guys to start reading! I really enjoyed the beginning of this chapter, Inu plays daddy to Sango and Miroku's brood for a short time...and then his cousin drops in (grins)...as usual any comments, questions, critiscism, are ALL welcome.

Speaking of which: **_andarial_** don't feel bad! (dries tears) I wasn't trying to pick on you! Actually your comment had me thinking in a direction of sudden rather startling action (you guys are going to hate me again(winks)) and I'd actually been thinking the same thing myself...so you didn't bug or offend me at all! Never! I listen to reviews seriously, and when someone says what I've been thinking for a while I know it's time for drastic (well, maybe) action...thus I think the next chapter's ending may startle a lot of you (hey, maybe you'll even hate me and never read again!) but I was feeling like I had to do it...anyway, 'nuff of me talking..read and review guys!

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****Demon Cousins and the Moon**

"And then the big ugly hair demon came at Kagome! It would've eaten her whole just for the shards she was carrying if _I_ hadn't been there to save her! But I was there—and so I grabbed the big ugly smelly demon by the hair tossed it up over the trees and over a cliff. But it wasn't dead…you might think a demon is dead when it isn't—happens a lot. The only sure way to kill a demon good and dead is to Wind-Scar their sorry a—butts." Inuyasha cleared his throat, smiling smugly at his audience of two—Kohimu and Tisoki—and was about to continue with his tale when Kohimu spoke up excitedly.

"Will you teach _me_ to use the Tetsuseiga!" his chocolate brown eyes, almost identical to Sango's, were alight with awe and excitement. "_Please _Uncle Inuyasha!"

The hanyou hesitated, suddenly appearing the opposite of big, bold, and almighty. "Uh…"

"_Please Uncle Inuyasha!"_ Kohimu begged again, and this time he nudged his silent but utterly absorbed younger brother with his elbow, "We'll both be _really_ good boys, and _really_ strong too! _Please!_ I don't wanna be a lep-er-us monk like Daddy! I wanna be hanyou like you!"

Tisoki threw his brother a look of sudden confusion, his eyes—identical to his older brother's—were filled with an emotion that bordered on hurt, "But 'Himu…" he half whimpered, "Daddy's _cool!"_

"Then _you_ can be the lep-er-us monk 'Soki, and _I'll_ be the hanyou still!" _(A/N: in case his mistake in pronounciation is last on you, a "leper" is someone with the skin/flesh rotting disease leprosy. I probably spelled that one wrong...but I hope that helped.)_

Inuyasha looked at the boys in something close to a panic. His amber eyes flicked desperately around the room, looking for Miroku and Sango who had only recently left him alone…where _were_ they! They'd said they'd only be gone a minute to put Kasai down to sleep…

A tug on his sleeve made Inuyasha look back to the boys—and he found that Tisoki had climbed over the table to pull on him, and was staring up at him with the large, innocent pools of chocolate that were a younger replica of his mother's. "But Uncle Inu-ya-so…" the younger brother was still too young to speak with complete confidence and accuracy, but he did fine for a boy his age, "You think Daddy is cool, right?"

"Uh…"

Kohimu frowned, "Uncle Inu-_yasha_ agrees with Mommy, I'm sure. And Mommy says that Daddy is a lep-er-us monk!"

"That's cool!" Tisoki insisted, but Kohimu ignored him and continued to beg Inuyasha silently with his eyes…

Inuyasha panicked. With a jerk he ripped his sleeve from Tisoki's grasp, frowning at the boy for his not-so-subtle movement of climbing over the table. "First off—Tisoki, get off the table." He scolded. The young boy did as he was told, but his brown eyes were starting to turn red and puffy, he wouldn't look Inuyasha in the eye as he moved, and still wouldn't even after he'd moved back to sit beside his brother.

A little sniffle resounded through the room and Inuyasha cringed at it, while Kohimu, confidently, jabbed his younger brother, claiming dominance, "Wimp." He muttered.

Tisoki started to bawl pitifully.

_Oh gods…_he had to stop them from fighting and crying.

"Shhh!" he ordered, sternly, but Tisoki only managed to quiet his sobs a little, sheepishly looking to Inuyasha, the tears shining in his eyes. Inuyasha hated the stench of salty tears from the little child, it reminded him too much of his own past, of the stink of his own tears when the other human boys had rejected him, thrown dirt and snow into his face, cursed him…_damn it!_

"Okay, first of all," he began, clearing his throat, "Tetsuseiga can only be wielded by someone with demon powers. I'm sorry but both of you are human and can't do it. Secondly—Kohimu," the boy looked up at him, the unhappy set of his lips the only thing that revealed outwardly, besides his scent, how much the news bothered him, "Your father is a _lecherous_ monk, not a _leprous_ one, okay? There's a _big_ difference there, trust me kid." Kohimu nodded. _(A/N: Told ya!)_

"And lastly," he looked to the still whimpering Tisoki, "Both your mother and father are very cool people…" he frowned then, looking away from the boys and toward the hallway, "I just wish I knew where they were right now…"

Abruptly Shippo raced from the hallway, panting and panicked.

Inuyasha's ears fell backward at the sight. "Shippo?" he called, suspiciously.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha! I smell _her_ again!"

The hanyou watched as the kit disappeared into the kitchen and a moment later he heard a _thunk!_ sound as the kit collided with the front door. He frowned, sniffing the air…why hadn't he noticed the smell? He took a second whiff and still noticed nothing. _What the…_ His eyes flashed toward the boys who were sitting at stark attention now, their tears and their quarrels forgotten. But he knew immediately that it'd been Tisoki's salty tears at just the right moment that had obscured the pink-bitch's scent…or was it the moon?

Could time have flown by that fast? He didn't doubt it…but it didn't matter now because this night he still had his demon strength, Inutaisho's half of his heritage to fall back on…

The hanyou rose to his feet, and restrained a smirk when he noted how both Kohimu and Tisoki stared at him with their twin chocolate colored eyes, wide and awestruck. He turned his dog-ears to where he could hear Shippo furiously pacing about the kitchen, whimpering to himself. "Shippo!" he snapped.

"What!"

"What are Sango and Miroku doing? Do they know that the pink-bitch is back yet?"

There was a pause during which Shippo stopped his pacing, apparently thinking. Finally his voice came, and it was distinctly nervous, "They're in their room with Kasai…they don't know she's back…"

"Well they will in a second!" Inuyasha growled, irritably.

"I wouldn't do that if…" but the kitsune's voice trailed off for a moment and Inuyasha heard him snuffling before he abruptly made a squeaking noise in panic, "She's right outside!"

The hanyou growled and charged, his bare feet pounding over the floorboards, toward Sango and Miroku's room…and then he stopped as he realized that the door had been slid firmly shut and, in the tightness of the hallway, his keen hearing picked out the low sounds of something that was _not_ talking…_damn those two! **Now **of all times! Don't they have enough kids already!_

"Miroku! Sango! Get out here now!" _well, once you're fully-clothed anyway…_he almost choked at that last thought and was about to go and pound on the door to ensure that he had their attention, when he heard Shippo scream from the kitchen in desperation.

"SHE'S HERE!"

As soon as Shippo's frightened scream fell into nothingness, the boys, the panicked kitsune, and the angered hanyou all heard a rising call from outside the house, in the front gardens, likely at the bottom of the stairs on the front verandah. It was almost identical to a wolf howl, in fact had the mortals been asked to describe it that was what they would've said so, short and simply. But in fact Inuyasha heard a slight difference in the call that separated it clearly to him as a dog demon's summoning howl…the pink-bitch was calling him outside…

Even more unnerving, Inuyasha felt a tightening in his chest and a brief assault of dizziness in his mind—which were all things that he only felt when his brother was nearby and officially calling to him, whether it was to fight or just to talk…of course the latter had almost never happened, but both summons were the same. Now the pink-bitch was doing the same…it was a distinctly inuyoukai thing to do. It left Inuyasha no doubt that at least _that_ part of her story had been true—she was a dog demon.

His hands clasped Tetsuseiga instinctively and Inuyasha strode forward, heading for the kitchen and front door, his face set in a tight mask of fury. As he passed Shippo he barked, quite latterly, "Get the boys to the back of the house, twerp, and then make sure Sango and Miroku get out of there as soon as they've got their pants back on…"

Shippo gulped nervously and raced away from the hanyou's big, powerful form, straight back to the sitting room. As he shepherded the boys into the hallway he strongly resembled a sheepdog moving his herd.

Inuyasha slid open the door without the slightest hesitation and stepped out into the cold air of the late winter. Squinting in the darkness as his eyes adjusted.

Sure enough, at the bottom of the steps, he saw a tall, lean woman, her shimmering, almost translucent hair waving in the night wind. Her scent assaulted his nose and he found it disconcertingly easy to analyze—she was an inuyoukai, a female, older than both he and Sesshomaru. He felt his stomach twist in disgust as he realized that he could even scent her fertility—she wasn't in heat—and silently he hated himself for even checking it, despite the fact that he'd done it unconsciously. Unsurprisingly he scented that she had birthed at least one pup in her lifetime—in fact he thought that if he inhaled enough he could detect the pup's scent too, lingering on her…

The silence between the two people—if they could be called that—had gone on for minutes at a time. Neither seemed eager to break it, and both were taking in and analyzing the other carefully. While Inuyasha had observed her through her scent, Taikokajin had noted Inuyasha just as much—if not more. She could tell that he was healthy and young; that Inutaisho's demon blood ran in him even stronger than it did in Sesshomaru, amazingly. She scented his human mate's health just from the lingering aroma on the hanyou easily. And the pup's scent too, it was healthy and strong, very much like Inuyasha's. As he took her in she was amused to note that he had scented her as he might a potential mate—although he didn't seem to like the fact that he had. She felt a slight jolt run through her realizing that this inuhanyou had likely never seen an inuyoukai female before his whole life…

"Inuyasha…" she bowed before him, her hair flowed around her like her scent did invisibly, and Inuyasha stiffened, realizing that he was probably gaping at her stupidly—something he couldn't afford to do. If she realized how much this situation baffled him she would be able to defeat him easily…

"What the hell do you want, bitch?" he snarled with a surprising amount of venom. Even he blinked at it, not realizing how much her presence made him tense with nervousness…

Taikokajin glared at him through the dark, and Inuyasha tried to hide the fact that this angry look reminded him _too_ much of Sesshomaru… "I have come to talk with you of dire matters that concern the clan…also I have come to welcome you into the dog demon clan…" her voice was serene and clear, like the trickling of a fountain in a silent courtyard, the roll of distant thunder over an empty plain.

Inuyasha restrained a shudder, "What makes you think, bitch, that I give a rat's ass about the clan?" he bristled suddenly, finding a memory from his past to fuel his abrupt fury. "I mean, they sure as _hell_ didn't care when the _great_ Inutaisho of the _wonderful_ dog demon clan died, leaving his mate, my mother, alone and defenseless with his _half-_demon son!" his fists curled in a sudden rage, ready to reach and draw Tetsuseiga. "You assholes left her to be murdered! And me to starve!"

Taikokajin seemed surprised, and when he reached for Tetsuseiga she bowed, her hands clasped in front of her peacefully. "Please," she whispered, so quietly that Inuyasha could barely hear her, "You must understand that the clan didn't know of your existence…"

"Bullshit!" he shouted, ears curled backward in outrage.

"It's true!" Taikokajin defended, lifting her gleaming eyes to meet his accusatory stare, "We had heard the legends of the hanyou Inuyasha that had slain the terrible Naraku, but we didn't know that he was the son of our clan's Inutaisho…"

"Bullshit!" Inuyasha repeated, "You left my mother and I out to die! I _know_ you did because you're all a bunch of assholes like my brother!"

"No," Taikokajin's eyes suddenly moistened and Inuyasha cringed as the stink of salty tears reached him, "That is not true. The clan would've accepted you, half-demon or not, Inuyasha…" her words were spoken almost comfortingly, soothingly, and the hanyou found himself wanting to believe them—she seemed real, but he couldn't just accept that…

"You can't expect me to believe—bitch—that my father never told the damned clan that—"

"Your father was secretive." Taikokajin interrupted him gently, and much to Inuyasha's self-disgust he found that he had to listen, "He didn't tell the clan of his involvement with your mother. Sesshomaru has been the one to tell me all that I know about you, in fact. Your father never got the chance to do so before his death. Sesshomaru neglected to tell anyone of your relation to the clan because he despised your parent's relationship and despised you. He wanted you and your mother to perish outside of the clan's protection. But as you haven't perished, he finally admitted your existence to me some weeks ago."

"And why," Inuyasha snarled, still suspicious, "Do you care about me now?"

Taikokajin smiled alarmingly, revealing her large and very white fangs, "Because I, Inuyasha dear, am your cousin."

He wasn't impressed. "I know that already—I can bloody well smell it bitch!" he growled threateningly, "I know that you wouldn't have come to me unless you had a pretty important reason! So you might as well stop lying, cut the shit, and tell the truth!"

Taikokajin was having trouble keeping her firm grip on reality while dealing with the hanyou. He was so clearly a member of the inuyoukai family—his features, his scent, his strength and power were all clear signs of it—but his temper! Yes, she knew Sesshomaru had a temper, as had, it was rumored, Inutaisho, but they never expressed it in words. The hanyou, meanwhile, spouted human curses and slang like a madman! She'd been raised amidst the power of the clan, the culture of the clan, and the respect of the clan. Inuyasha, it was obvious, had not…

But perhaps it was to his advantage when dealing with her. He knew she wasn't being entirely truthful and he was calling her for it…she could only pray that he wouldn't continue to be as smart as this throughout their whole exchange with one another.

What could she tell him? 

Sadly she sighed, and Inuyasha flinched tensely when she did, still ready for a fight. "I have come to tell you of a creature that kidnaps and kills hanyous…"

Inuyasha paused, frowning through the dark, "Hanyous?" he snorted, "Whatever the hell it is—if it likes killing hanyous—why haven't I run across it yet…?"

"It has only recently come to this place. It travels all over the earth seeking hanyous. It _lives_ off of hanyous…"

Despite himself Inuyasha felt his chest tighten in slight apprehension. "So where is this thing so I can kill it?" he snapped, ears turning backward.

"I am unsure…" she sighed again and suddenly allowed her emotions to sweep over her, let them reach the hanyou's nose until she could see him cringe and step back a pace…only then did she speak, "I went to Sesshomaru to beg for his help, his aide. We are cousins, it was not much to ask of a powerful inuyoukai leader…" she regained her composure once again and pressed on with what she hoped would win him over, "But your brother turned me away—but not before he mentioned _you._ You see, I asked for his help in retrieving my daughter…"

The hanyou snorted, but her emotions _had _effected him, Taikokajin noted the way his ears were no longer folded backward, his stance was looser, he was _listening,_ he was _contemplating,_ "Feh! That's ridiculous! What kind of mother are you, bitch? Why can't you get your daughter yourself!"

"My lands, to the east of here, are war-torn. Most Inuyoukai leaders' lands are war-torn at this time. None can spare a moment for me. _I_ cannot spare a moment! But Sesshomaru's lands are at peace…"

"And of course the asshole wouldn't even think of helping you…" he shook his head, "You're not very smart are you, bitch?"

"No, he wouldn't help—but he pointed me to you…"

"Yea, and I'll have to go punch his lights out for it too…" Inuyasha growled irritably.

"Please," she fixed him with her glittering pink gaze through the darkness of the thin moonlight, colored blue in the snow, "You must know why he told me of you…_my daughter is a hanyou…_"

He started, ears flickering in confusion. She scented a score of different emotions that reached her suddenly and then withdrew again as Inuyasha stifled them, hiding them.

"Bullshit!" but despite his denial she heard him scent her, deeply, several times. She let him do it, feeling a surge of victory in the darkness…she knew he'd smell a strange mixture of mortal and youkai odors on her and he'd be filled with doubt, she could already smell the uncertainty in him.

"I have two pups," she told him, her voice unusually weak and quiet, "The firstborn is like your brother—the result of my bond with a male that the clan selected for me. He is my heir, and I am very proud of him, but I never cared much for his father. Some years ago I took a human lover—and bore another pup, a hanyou."

"Congratulations," Inuyasha growled sarcastically, "And I suppose that this little girl of yours was taken by this _thing?_"

"Yes, she was…" this time her tears and emotions were real. Her mind's eye filled with the young girl's deep brown eyes, the black of her hair, dark, thick and shiny like her father's had been…and the girl's bright, snow-white dog ears, nearly identical to Inuyasha's own…

"And you want _me_ to get her back?"

She blinked, bringing herself to the present and out of her reverie. Sadly she nodded, wishing things were really as simple and easy as that…then she could've simply entrusted the task to Shimofuri, her son, and have been done with it… "I can tell you where to go and when, as well as what this creature looks like…also, you must know, _it has been here at your estate already…_it is searching for you…"

"Well, it'd better hope to hell that it doesn't meet me." Inuyasha snapped smugly.

_Yes,_ Taikokajin thought as she hid her face from the hanyou in a thankful bow, _let us hope that he doesn't meet you until the set time and place for the trade-off…_

The hanyou startled her then, his voice even, not revealing any emotion, not even suspicion. She was startled; though she hid it carefully, by how quickly he'd adjusted to having another demon with similar, if not better senses interact with him. Considering that the hanyou's friends were all humans except for his young pup and the kitsune youkai, he had adapted with amazing speed. She had expected to be able to read him like a book, to play him like a card, but the hanyou was surprisingly quick-minded and adaptable. It was no wonder that he had managed to do great things with himself despite the fact that half his heritage was mortal…

"Taikokajin," he nodded his head to her, the first sign of a passing of respect from Inuyasha to his cousin. It was the first time that she had heard him use her name, and not the term _bitch_, which she knew he used as an insult—not as a term of affection from males to females as the clan males did. "If I do as you ask—what's in it for me? What will the _clan_ care?"

He was clever—he wanted to make sure that he wasn't being used; he wasn't being exploited. She knew that she was pinned, but she hid her nervousness well—years of experience were hers to fall back on and she was thankful.

"I will alert the other families within the clan and the inuyoukai rulers, of your relation to us. They will wish to pledge their loyalty to you—if you should be in need of aide they will be obliged to offer you as much as they are able. Your offspring will be considered as possible heirs to the various lands—including Sesshomaru's in particular." She didn't miss, even in the dark, the smirk that bloomed over her inuhanyou cousin's face.

"And," she paused, trying to collect her thoughts, suddenly nervous and uncertain and knowing that Inuyasha could easily scent it, despite her swift efforts to cover it, "You must know that this hanyou hunting demon has plagued our clan especially over the millennia. It is inuhanyous that he _prefers_ to take, from _our_ clan."

He frowned, clearly confused, and she lamented that he hadn't reacted with the apprehension that she'd _wished_ he would. She'd meant to scare him or to anger him, but it seemed to have backfired. She waited tensely as he prepared to speak, wondering if she had just lost her only chance at recovering her child…

"Why? Why inuhanyous? Why from _your_ clan?"

She knew the answer but _couldn't _tell him. If he knew the full truth he'd never be so stupid as to walk right into this hanyou-eating demon's clutches…she also didn't fail to note the hanyou's clear hesitance still to accept the clan of his paternal ancestors. He was clearly still attached to the memories of the mortal woman who'd raised him—alone, with nothing but the stories of his powerful father. It was something she herself couldn't imagine, her youth had been spent in the company of her powerful father and siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles. _Never_ alone. She pitied him such solitude…although she had to admit it _had_ made him strong, had molded him into a survivor…

And suddenly she _knew_ how to fool him into running straight into the clutches of the inuhanyou-hungry beast that called himself Garou…Inuyasha was so stubborn and proud, and such a lone fighter, that he would proudly take even the most hopeless battles with the right incentive…and she had it.

"Because it is from _our_ clan that he was told an inuhanyou would rise and kill him—if _he_ didn't kill it first. That is why he takes every hanyou that he knows of from our clan as soon as he is able—at the _youngest_ age possible…" she knew that Inuyasha's sudden stiffening wasn't because he saw himself as that "prophesized," killer, but because of her last, emphasized word, _youngest._ He was thinking of his pup…in the darkness she heard his fists tightening, the muscles snapping, ready for action.

Yes, Inuyasha—think of how your pup is at stake, of how he smells like a hanyou…and don't think about whether or not I'm lying to you…

He was a young father—something that she knew was almost unheard of among hanyous as a whole—and had likely worked hard to be blessed with such a pup. As a result he would be even more intensely protective of it…

Inuyasha's golden gaze landed on her, shining starkly in the blue of the moonlight, "Tell me, Taikokajin, where to find this bastard…"

She bowed slowly, genuine relief spilling off her in waves, "Yes, Inuyasha, of course…"

When Taikokajin had left, vanishing in a flurry of white fur, startling pink eyes, and swift pink-padded paws, Inuyasha waited on the verandah, looking at the moon. _She said two days…two days until I meet this beast, slaughter it, save her stupid daughter and get it all over with…_but although he was thinking of the task that would soon be upon him, his memory was flashing images of all those he'd loved over his lifetime. He recalled the cascading curtain of black hair that had been his mother. The smell of cooking herbs and milk that he associated with her came back to him as well. Kikyo's flowing priestess's garb also assaulted his memories, the twang of her bow as she shot the arrow that pinned him to the tree…and Kagome?

He closed his eyes, shook his head, as if his ears itched and he'd forgotten that he had hands and fingers that could scratch them. _I have to keep **her** and **Koinu** safe…_ did his son qualify as a hanyou? Had this beast come to his estate hungering for the pup's flesh? Or was it more drawn to his own flesh? To them both? But Taikokajin had said that it took those of _his_ father's clan…and Inuyasha knew full well that he was not a _known _member of that group…not _yet…_

Could a beast like the one she'd describe _know_ that anyway? But if it had, wouldn't it have killed him long ago?

He shook his head again, confused. _It doesn't all add up nicely…was that bitch lying? _

He looked to the moon and felt his muscles tighten anew. _But what if she wasn't? What if that thing comes for Koinu? _

"Inuyasha?" queried a very nervous, and slightly embarrassed female voice. The hanyou nearly jumped. He'd been so tense, so deeply in thought, that he hadn't heard or scented Sango's approach. He was even more surprised when he turned and saw that Miroku was there as well.

He growled looking at them, not because of their sudden appearance, or because they'd been "busy," when the pink-eyed bitch had returned to menace them…but because his thoughts were garbled, still so heavy and uncertain and worried over his discussion with Taikokajin. But of course the monk and the demon slayer both blushed and stank immediately of embarrassment and he remembered, with an abrupt smirk, the earlier events.

"Well, good to see you got dressed." He nodded, smiling dryly. The scent of embarrassment skyrocketed; it hit his senses like a wall.

"W-what happened, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, hesitantly, clearing his throat to rid it of the waver of uncertainty.

He sighed, half a growl and half a tension release. "The bitch told me a _lot…_"

"Care to explain?" Sango cocked her head to one side, inviting him silently back into the house.

"Yeah." He muttered and started to follow them slowly inside when he paused, turning back to glare one last time at the moon.

_Stay where you are Kagome, keep Koinu safe with your family…_

* * *

Endnote: Okay, to the reviewers! I think there were quite a lot of you this go around too!

_**andarial**_ (Again, I'm sorry, didn't mean or want in anyway for you to be upset!) _**FYI IY is mine**_ (sorry no Hojo this chapter, next chapter yes, I promise) _**InuPhoenix**_ (did you like what he had to say to his cousin? Not such a nice family reunion I would say when the cousin comes to trick you into getting yourself killed...) _**SerenaClearwater**_ (hey! I "chicken-peck" too! Course I call it "walking" over the keyboard now becuase I'm like half-way between the real thing and the "chicken-pecking" b/c I type so much that I have learned the keys through osmosis...) _**NefCanuck**_ (when I read your review I laughed so hard, imagining you leaning into the computer screen reading, forgetting as the chapter progresses that there's the cliffy...and then you reach it and are instantly "Doh!" good ol' Homer Simpson, leaving us that very nice expression!) _**cool-chick-rae**_ (once again your review has been VERY useful to me, I thought that Hojo would be more likely to know what "canis lupis" really is, but I wasn't sure as I haven't seen enough of the series with Hojo in it...(pouts) and I too wanted her to tell him the truth, but it's a feeble thought, it's too crazy! I might try it anyway, who's with me?) _**The**_ _**Moonless Night**_ (You KNOW it's bad when the author herself says that she doesn't know!) _**TheDarkAngel101**_ (Sorry! (sheepish look) That's the only bad thing about my updates, eh? Discourages readers sometimes when their are WAY too many things...) _**vanessa**_ (welcome!) _**Yami Chikara**_ (hehe...got bored with just Somebody's Waiting For Me? I hope you read "So much for the hanyou's" first...but thank you for multiple reviews!) **_Simonkal of Inyu _**(WOW! Thank you! Gosh these fanfictions are addictive! I know I LOVE finding a good one myself! But I really should be writing my own stuff and trying to publish it...(pouts) but like I said, this stuff IS so much fun! I hope you get to see my response here...I know you gotta read through more than 10 new chaps of this one too! Phew! I'm keeping you busy!) _**Mad-4-Manga**_ (cliffies suck no? heheheh...I'm so evil!)

There, email is down to 74 again rather than 90 or whatever it was before (blush) again, that's my fault...too many fic at once probably, but you know if I just had one or two I'd get bored...okay...here's a snippet of what I have written (which is most of a chapter, but I'm not sure about it yet, so I might just trash it...) here goes anyway:

_When Hojo's eyes glided to Taro, Taro took advantage of the moment and started to explain for the stricken Higurashi siblings. "See her baby was born with a disease—" he started, confidently, only to have Kagome whirl on him her face a mask of outrage, her color restored with her surge of maternal protection. _

_"My son does **not** have a **disease!**__**"** she hissed, looking as if she might cut him into tiny pieces and feed them to that aforementioned child. Taro gulped and backed away, too stunned to speak or refute her._

hehe...until next time then guys!


	13. Truth

**Disclaimer:** Nope I donot own Inuyasha

**A/N:** Sorry guys but this is going to be an exceptionally short posting...(not the chapter but my extras and thank yous andsuch...) I'm only going to say that I can't proofread this (please forgive me!) but with Graduation in two months and suddenly a friend of mine who's dating a guy (MY Miroku actually) that has had a thing for me for a long time (I mean I watched him dump hisold girlfriend one daynot a week after he asked me "hypothetically" what I'd say if he told me he was "madly in love with me." and I answered smartly, "I'd say that you have a girlfriend." and he shot back, "What if I told you that IcouldGET RID of her?"Tell me that it's not a coincidence! I'd actually be glad to hear it!) And now he's dating one of my closer friends and I know that even if I just hang with this guyit'll silently tempt him andhe'll ruin her and chase me again, and dating him is against my morals...and SHE will HATE me...I'm graduating soon and I don't want to lose anymore friends...(HEAVY sigh) so I'm chatting with her trying to set things straight so she doesn't feel threatened by me at the same time I write this out...Please, pity for me and forgive me? Thank you ALL...Just BE WARNED There is a cliffy in this chapter...yes, I know, another one...but you have been warned...I'm sorry again...I hate my life (sighs) you guys are the best part of it (winks)...onward to the story now!

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* * *

Truth **

"Nothing's wrong with them Hobo…" Taro snickered, breaking the thick silence with his sniggling little excuse for a joke. Hojo hardly seemed to notice the youth's attempt to break the tension. All his attention was focused on the pup and its mother, confusion written there as he watched the ears—_the **bloody DOG ears!—**move_ before his eyes, showing themselves as undeniably _real…_

Unlike Taro, who was both younger and less educated in the realms of life science, Hojo knew of nothing that could so warp the baby's ears. With a jolt he realized that the hair—the _silvered_ hair—matched the ears almost perfectly for color. It wasn't _blonde_ hair; it was _silver_ or maybe even _white_ hair…his mind reeled, seeking some sort of explanation. He looked to Kagome again, seeing the unmistakable horror on her face, the stunned, terrified pallor of her skin, and knew he'd stumbled onto something _big,_ no more than that—_huge._ What the hell was happening!

"Hey Hobo," Taro tried again, looking from his best friend, who'd buried his face in his hands in despair, to Kagome, who, although still undeniably _very_ sexy, was now paler than he'd ever seen her, as if her kidneys hadn't worked in ten years and she was late for her dialysis appointment. Why were they all terrified in this situation? Why not just tell stupid Hobo-I-have-the-biggest-die-hard-crush-on-the-super-sexy-but-happily-married-new-mother-big-sister-to-Sota-Kagome the truth?

When Hojo's eyes glided to Taro, Taro took advantage of the moment and started to explain for the stricken Higurashi siblings. "See her baby was born with a disease—" he started, confidently, only to have Kagome whirl on him her face a mask of outrage, her color restored with her surge of maternal protection.

"My son does _not_ have a _disease!_" she hissed, looking as if she might cut him into tiny pieces and feed them to that aforementioned child. Taro gulped and backed away, too stunned to speak or refute her.

"Yea! Yea!" Sota suddenly exclaimed, looking between his sister, his friend, and Hojo eagerly, "She's right, he doesn't have a _disease,_ he has a—" he begged his sister with his eyes momentarily as he swallowed, finding the right words, "A _genetic anomaly."_

Taro blinked at him stupidly, and Kagome, her wrath on pause, seemed to freeze, thinking as fast as she possibly could with the situation developing around her. Hojo was the first to react, and his response didn't bode well for Sota's fast thinking.

"There is no such anomaly! It's be documented otherwise!" he huffed, looking at the innocent baby again, frowning in confusion. The ears twitched and swiveled this way and that again, making him feel dizzy, as if the baby's ears were messing up gravity…_how could I have missed them?_ He wondered, astonished at his blindness, _they're to big to be combed down into his hair, and he moves them so well and so often…how—_and then he remembered, with a jolt, the blue woolen cap. _Kagome kept them hidden from me. She was hiding this secret from me…but **why?**_ If there were some genetic anomaly that could cause such a strange thing in a baby, why would Kagome hide it? Nobody can change his or her genes, what didn't she want him to know? Why didn't she understand that he was her friend—and more if she'd let him, although with a child and a husband that was impossible now—why would she want to hide it, unless she didn't trust him for some reason…?

He shook his head, feeling dizzy still, as if he might suddenly wake up and find out that his was all a strange, very twisted dream…but wait…his memories of growing up returned, pushing forward with their quiet insinuations, forcing him to realize that _he'd seen those features before…_the silvered hair, the shape of the nose, the length of the fingernails which should've been more accurately called claws…

Hojo looked to Kagome, an expression of softer, gentler confusion blooming there. He was about to speak when Taro raised his voice instead, catching everyone's attention.

"Look man—all I know is that Sota told me about this disease—Can-it-lupp—uh…something or other." He frowned and gestured at the baby, "This genetic disease that makes the baby like that. He said that it makes him look like a dog almost. Right Sota?" Kagome's little brother said nothing, but his face reddened and he tried to avoid Kagome's gaze, he looked miserable, "Sota even said he'll grow _fangs!_ How cool is that Hobo!"

Hojo's face didn't react; his eyes were still on the baby, his mind still spinning. _Fangs, Taro says…**fangs…**_he remembered sharp canines too, flashing just underneath the lips…and a red baseball cap! His body stiffened with realization as his eyes slid from the baby to Kagome once more—and saw fear. She seemed to know that he knew her secret, or suspected that he did. He'd worked it through…the baby didn't look strange because of random mutation or "genetic anomalies," it looked the way it did because of very simple genetics, the kind that you learn in some of the earliest sciences.

One female egg plus one male sperm equaled a new life. A new life that shared traits from those that had provided the two cells that had spawned it…

He looked to Taro, "I've never heard of that before…" he started, making Taro look uncomfortable, his gaze fell on Sota again, who offered nothing, and he started to wonder if the Higurashis weren't really space invaders or something…after all, the ideas for the books, the TV shows, the video games and the movies _had_ to come from somewhere! Right?

Before Taro or Hojo could make things any worse, Kagome let out a loud, long sigh, and resigned, she glanced at Hojo, carefully, before finally speaking, "I'll tell you all about the disease if you come with me, Hojo." Behind her Taro and Sota were confused, and Koinu had started to coo and mumble in his baby language, but between Hojo and Kagome nothing stirred. Silently they were exchanging a promise of the truth after so many years of deceit. But would Hojo accept the truth? She had her doubts, but the good news, she thought, was that if he didn't believe her he'd likely just think she was crazy and take off, never thinking to come back and bug her with his infatuation ever again…maybe it was the only way to get rid of him…

Solemnly, Hojo nodded.

"Okay," she sighed, "Then I'll go get my coat." She scooped Koinu up into her arms and stood up slowly, making the pup squeal with glee and wave his arms eagerly, pawing at her with his tiny-clawed hands.

"Kagome!" Sota suddenly spoke up, dragging her gaze back on him. "But…why do you need to have your coat to tell him about the _disease…_?" his older sister blinked once at him, bounced Koinu in her arms a little, and, in little fractions, the realization dawned on him. "Oh…okay…" he tried to smile, but the muscles in charge of such an expression were shivering with tiny tremors of uncertainty, and it died before it was completely formed. "Have fun!" he coughed with that one, also destroying the authentic feel.

Hojo was frowning as Kagome and he exited the room, Koinu squealing happily, blissfully ignorant of the tension among the adults. Sota watched tensely as Kagome and Hojo disappeared. He heard their feet down the hall, a pause at the closet where their coats were gathered and put on, and then the front door slid open…and slid shut again. The moment they were gone he heaved a great sigh and reached to turn the TV back on to resume the game they'd been playing before all the fuss had started…

But Taro was unsatisfied with that.

"Sota?" he asked, frowning when his friend's gaze fell on him. "Why didn't Hobo there believe the disease? I mean—_duh!_ The baby fits the description! Why couldn't he believe it? Stupid loser…" he growled, but his confusion was still very apparent, and Sota was thinking as fast as he possibly could while pretending not to. The game controllers in his hands were slick with perspiration.

"You said it—Hobo's a loser." He threw the second controller at Taro, "You gonna play or not?"

"Yea, I am…but…" his voice drifted off and Sota cursed inwardly, searching for a better explanation than just blaming it on Hojo.

"Okay Taro, Kagome's sensitive about Koinu's appearance because Gramps has trouble accepting it. He always says stuff like she should've married someone like Hobo, you know, prissy Mr. Charming and all…but Kagome married Inu—er—her lover boy from America, John, and had Koinu instead. So when you said Koinu had a disease she got all upset because you know," he shrugged feebly, "Disease is like a bad word to mothers, you know…"

Taro suddenly sighed, a heavy sound of extensive relief. "Oh yea, man, you know when a doctor once accidentally told my mom that I had 'attention-deficit-_disease,_' instead of 'attention-deficit-_disorder,_' and she got all upset over it…" then he chuckled and slapped Sota on the back, wondering briefly why his friend's muscles felt as stiff as steel—why would he be so tense? "You know, for a minute, I was _really_ starting to think you guys were like aliens that the government created that got out and like ate people you know?"

Sota laughed, genuinely, "If that were true, Taro, they would've made me smarter or just let me go because I am so screwed up!"

"Yea, you're right," Taro snickered, "But your _sister,_" he couldn't stop his face from twisting into a lecherous, dreamy, hormone driven mask of bliss, "Your big _sister_ climbed outta that secret government place with a price tag on her head, cuz man oh man she's—"

"Say _one_ more word, Taro," Sota growled with a dangerous glare, imitating, although neither was aware of it, the aforementioned big sister's hanyou husband, "And I'm going to have to kick your ass."

"C'mon Sota man!" Taro whined, "Why don't you let Kagome spank—I mean _kick_ my—"

"That's _it!"_

A scream resounded through the house and a lamp met a tragic end as it crashed and splintered into a thousand pieces. It was days like that when Mrs. Higurashi longed to have her very own subduing spell, but could only shake her head sadly as she realized that it wasn't quite a perfect world.

* * *

The snow was mostly melted around the small building that she led him toward. Hojo wasn't really paying attention to their surroundings; he was lost in his own thoughts and memories. His mother had been rather traditionally spirited. She gave him many of the folk remedies he'd given Kagome over her years of "illness." He'd always had a fondness for the strange thanks to her influence, which had led to his pursuing biology. One day he hoped to become a nurse or a physician's assistant and move his practice to the United States, where he'd heard that the need for young health care officials was critical. (A/N: I'm pretty sure that that's true. There aren't enough doctors and nurses in the US now and as the Baby Boomers generation starts entering the critical aging years the need will skyrocket. Go Hojo! He's not really a Hobo!)

But not in one study, not in one medical, or biological, or genetic textbook he'd looked into over the years had he _ever_ seen a note about an abnormality such as Kagome's son had. Of course it _had_ to be in the baby's genes—how else could they work so well, those fuzzy, twittering organs—because he doubted that even the sickest parents would try to experiment on their child with abdominal surgeries or gene therapy. And besides—such things were still science fiction! It took hundreds, even _thousands_ of failed eggs and embryos to create _one_ clone, which usually died young anyway. How could Kagome have such a strange baby that seemed so healthy?

There was only one explanation, and by the time he noted that the white of snow under his feet had changed to cleared and salted concrete, he'd already dismissed every other radical excuse she could try on him. He looked up and saw that they were stepping up three small stairs to one of the shrine's many storage houses. He was aware that, like his mother tended to do, her grandfather was a packrat that stored anything that kept his eye or that he believed had powers. Naturally the other shrine-keepers had had similar compulsions. Thus the storehouses were packed to the brim and stored with many, many things of various natures. He'd never been inside one before but could guess that it was like his mother's own storage areas…

Kagome started to fumble with the lock hanging on the door, her hands pale and white as the snow in the courtyard. Wrapped up tightly, pressed to her skin, was Koinu. Hojo kept his distance from mother and son, hoping his face didn't look too cold or hostile. Kagome's held no expression, and he didn't once catch her eyes flicking toward him. The baby, wrapped in the jacket with her, turned his blue eyes on Hojo and grinned toothlessly. Hojo, possessing a genuinely kind-hearted nature, couldn't help but smile back at the baby's happiness…

_Yes, I was right…that baby wasn't the result of anything but love. I don't know where her husband is right now—but I don't need to be introduced to know what he looks like, I can see it in their child's face. _Despite the bitterness he felt at the realization he could also feel a sort of strange acceptance coming as well…if not for the relentless question of _how_ father and son looked as they did…he'd assumed before that the individual that so looked like Koinu in his memories had bleached his hair—people do that sort of thing. But obviously he'd been wrong…

The lock opened up with a click and Kagome let loose with a deep sigh that Hojo could easily see blow off in a mist. His instincts wanted him to reach out and try to warm her up—or to offer her his own coat—but he refrained. Instead he waited silently while the woman that he'd always found so alluring, turned slowly to face him, her dark eyes utterly serious, unlike he'd ever seen them before.

"Hojo," she murmured, nailing him under her gaze. The baby in her jacket seemed to be getting cold. He tried to squirm and duck below the jacket, his ears turned backward, twittering more rapidly in the cold. Kagome's hands came up and rubbed over the bulge that was her son, trying to comfort him, and—except for the fact that the bulge moved—Hojo realized that she'd once looked close to this months ago while still pregnant.

He realized with a jolt that she expected him to speak. "Yes?" his breath fogged around him.

"If I tell you the truth…" she started, carefully, "You're going to have to take it to your grave with you—understand? And you're going to think that I'm crazy if I tell you—so be prepared…" she paused, frowning deeply for a moment. He saw, with some alarm, that her hands clutched over the baby protectively, as if she feared that he might try to steal her son or hurt him. But then, just as he was going to speak out and swear that he would never harm her or her son or even her husband, Kagome turned away from him, straining to look over her shoulder.

"Kagome…?" he asked after a moment when it became apparent that she wasn't going to turn back immediately.

The young mother jerked back, her eyes widened, "Y-yes?"

"What's wrong?" he scowled, seeing genuine fear in her eyes.

"Nothing." She chewed her lip for a moment and gestured with her eyes at the still closed storage house doors. "What do you say? Give me your word, Hojo…" she seemed uncertain, especially when the baby moved inside her jacket, mumbling in his baby tongue, "And I'll trust you with my biggest secret…"

Slowly Hojo nodded, his brow furrowed in interest. "I give you my word, Kagome Higurashi…" he paused a moment, trying to summon up some feeling to put into his voice, "You know I would never do anything that might harm you or your baby, or even your husband," his face tightened, "And that most certainly includes divulging secret information."

She seemed a little relieved at his words, but still so pale and uncertain…yet despite it she nodded and turned to the doors, moving with a determined strength. She wound her palm around the lock and pulled it free, shoving it into her jacket pocket. Reaching out, she snapped the doors free, shaking off the ice with a jolt that made Koinu whimper inside the warmth of her jacket. With a loud sound, almost a roaring, the door slid open, revealing a dark, shadowy inside, bristling with unknown objects. Hojo saw everything from jars and scrolls, to portraits that must've been a hundred years old, and boxes and boxes piled a mile high and dimly visible in the back reading simply: kimonos.

Kagome stepped into the room and flipped on a light switch. Immediately the shelves and piles and racks of mysterious treasures lit up. Prayer beads glittered down at Hojo from the first shelf he stared at, an old book, leather bound and dusty caught his eye after that, and following that still his gaze landed on two _very_ old sandals on the lowest shelf. Dazzled, Hojo gawked.

Without word, and without sign, Kagome stolidly led him inside. Cobwebs swung down with the air she disturbed as she passed. Hojo glanced down at the floor and noticed dried and dead leaves scattered about. _How long has it been last since someone besides us has come in here?_ He wondered, absently. He stopped when he saw that Kagome had stopped and was now fumbling her cold, thin fingers up over a high shelf, searching for something. Normally her grandfather probably came equipped with a stool of some sort to aide him with things that were stored up high…without it Kagome was like a hero trying to save a sinking ship with a straw.

He approached her and reached gently, slowly, to follow after her hand until she understood, withdrew sheepishly, and told him what he was looking for. "It'll be an old dusty scrapbook, Hojo." She murmured. He nodded and silently dug for it until his fingers met with plastic—something relatively modern.

"Plastic?" he asked her.

She nodded, "Yes."

Hojo gripped the thing and pulled it down. It wasn't nearly as old as any of the things that sat around it in this storage house but it wasn't exactly new either. The book was worn, cracked, and stained by mud and dirt…or was that just dust? He tried picking at it with his fingers but found the stains sticking stubbornly to his surprise. _Who would leave a scrapbook outside? This thing looks like it was left outside during a rainstorm!_

"Is this it…?" he asked, obviously unsure.

She nodded again, and reached out for it. He handed it over; still shaking his head about the shape it was it. It was a simple blue, bound in cracking plastic. Amidst the dirt on one corner he caught a name in kanji letters, neatly scrawled. It read: _Higurashi Kagome._

Hojo looked up in surprise. "Did you leave it outside?" he chuckled; one eyebrow raised at the thought, and was astonished to see her frown and nod. "Why?"

She sighed, "It's not an easy story to understand."

He pursed his lips, deciding to let her know that he already understood _something_ about it. "I remember Koinu's father." He was rewarded with a startled look from Kagome; her eyes widened, surprise and puzzled at the same time. He didn't wait for her to ask anything further, just plunged into what he knew, "At least, I _assume_ that the person I remember must be Koinu's father. You never really introduced me to him, but I saw him from time to time, always around you." He gestured to the swell in her jacket where the aforementioned pup was blubbering to himself against Kagome's warm skin within her jacket, "He looks just like Koinu except for the eyes, and of course the ears, which I never really saw, because he was always wearing a red baseball cap."

At that Kagome laughed, loudly, glee crinkling her eyes. Hojo blinked, wondering if he'd somehow been _very_ wrong.

When she was finished laughing at him Kagome looked Hojo in the eye, still smirking, and asked, "You remember seeing him in that silly little baseball cap?"

Hojo nodded, solemnly, "Yes—can I guess that there were ears like—like uh your son has, under that cap too?"

She nodded, her face dropping its mirth a little, "Yea—that's this little guy's father, my husband." Hojo nodded at her words, grateful that she'd answered his next question without him needing to voice it aloud. He'd wondered if Koinu were someone else's child other than her husband's. After all, he hadn't seen the man yet, so it was anyone's guess…he was about to ask her if she expected him to believe that there was a "genetic anomaly," in her husband's genes that made him and the child look so…inhuman…when she spoke again: "Do you believe in any of the old stories, Hojo?"

He blinked, thinking for a moment. "Old stories? As in…?"

"As in the ones your mother might tell you. As in the kind my grandfather tells to scare little kids every New Year. You know them—stories about demons that ruled over Japan hundreds of years ago, eating people and whatnot."

Hojo stared at her as if she'd sprouted wings. "Um…"

"I didn't think so." She sighed, her facial expression tense, her lips curved downwards. Slowly she extended the cracked, ripped, and prematurely aged scrapbook toward him. "This was my diary and memory book when I was just starting high school. I wrote in it while I was out "sick.""

Hojo chuckled, "No wonder it's so big!"

She nodded, "Yea," but there was little mirth in her eyes, "Open it."

He did as she ordered and was immediately greeted with two very different group photos. The first had been taken at the Higurashi shrine in front of the old building that housed the shrine's old well. All of the Higurashi family was standing in front of it, Mrs. Higurashi next to her daughter on one side, Sota next to their grandfather on the other, and in the very middle, between Kagome and Sota, was a figure robed in strange red clothing, eyes flashing gold, hair silver-white, and clear dog-ears atop his head.

The second photo, just below it, had been taken in a meadow somewhere. The countryside stunned him at first—so clean and clear! There were flowers speckling the grass, bright white clouds dotted a vibrant blue sky. The people caught his eye next—five of them. His eye caught the red robed figure he remembered, again without a baseball cap, the white, inhuman ears exposed. Beside that figure Kagome stood, wearing her school uniform, he noted that one of Kagome's hands was wrapped around the red robed man's strange necklace, the grin on her face contrasted the thick and heavy scowl of the red robed figure. Beside the two he recognized there were two others, a man and a woman, both dressed in ancient Japanese garb. The man seemed _very_ friendly with the woman, he saw that the man had one hand over her knee, squeezing. The woman didn't, however, look as if she appreciated his attention. In her lap, about to slap at the over-friendly man's hand, was a small child, a redhead with green eyes, pointy ears and…_a tail?_ Also on the woman's lap he noted some sort of strange kitten—possibly Siamese, and wondered if the film had been ruined or warped when it was exposed—that kitten seemed to have _two_ tails…

Kagome cleared her throat, drawing his attention, "Hojo, the first picture was taken here of course, with my husband several years ago. The second was taken by an old woman named Kaede…" she paused, pursing her lips, noticeably uncomfortable, and then blurted, "_Five-hundred years ago…"_

Hojo blinked at her, looked to the picture again, the one with the two adults, the kitten and the child that he didn't know, and back up at Kagome again. "Um…"

"I brought the camera." She told him, absently, "And I made them pose. And no, you're not hallucinating; the boy in Sango's lap _does_ have a tail. That's because he's a kitsune youkai—a demon."

He looked up at her, blinking. _How crazy does she think I am!_

"Kagome…pictures can be faked. I only believe in _this_ guy's ears because I've seen them on Koinu's head…"

She sighed, one hand flying to her temple while the other continued to support her son, still wrapped and shrouded in her coat. She stayed that way for several seconds and then, abruptly, her head shot up and she turned, looking back at the dark, cold, empty wall as if it's just called her a few atrocious names. After a few seconds had passed, with Koinu's baby murmurs as the only break in the monotony of silence, Hojo cleared his throat hesitantly. That brought her looking back at him, but this time he was sure he could still make out the fear in her eyes…what was making her look in that direction? He wondered. What was over there anyway…?

"Hojo, I told you it's hard to swallow but here goes nothing…" she sighed, biting her lip before she began to speak—rapidly. "Ever since I started middle school I've been jumping through the well on our property, _right over there_," she gestured with her thumb in the direction he was certain that she'd been looking to with fear in her eyes just moments ago, "Jumping through it and traveling through time to sometime about 500 years ago. On the other side I met those people—Sango the demon slayer, Miroku the monk, Shippo the kitsune youkai, Kilala was Sango's faithful neko-youkai companion, and Inuyasha…" she stumbled over the last name, her face abruptly burning red, "Is a half-demon. A half _dog_ demon."

Before he could stop himself Hojo blurted, "_Demon?"_ incredulously.

"Yes—demon. I know you think I'm crazy but that's why Koinu has ears like he does! That's why he has claws! That's why he'll have fangs like Inuyasha does!" to make sure that he hadn't forgotten about the living evidence, she unzipped her jacket some and nudged her sleepy son out for Hojo to see, despite his whimpering. "Do you see the ears? Do you see his claws?" she demanded.

Hojo glanced back at the book, his mind muddled and confused. He could see the baby's features so clearly reflected in this other man's…the relation couldn't be doubted, but…_demons?_ He frowned, his rational mind throwing her story away immediately. When he looked up again he muttered, "This is crazy!"

Frustrated, Kagome reached for the torn and scraped memory book and began flipping through the pages. More pictures ran by, colors, faces, emotions blurring together. And then she paused suddenly, stopping. When she thrust the book back at him Hojo found himself staring at a vast empty field, miles and miles of it…and covering most of it in the bright afternoon sunlight, were men. Men on horses, men in armor, men with bows and arrows and swords…if he squinted he could make their weapons out, their armor, the horses, the dust they threw up into the surrounding air. The photo had to have been taken from some great distance away from a hillside or a cliff somewhere. It took Hojo only a moment to realize what he was looking at. "They're samurais…"

"Yes…now, _you_ tell me how I got that picture if I wasn't _really_ in the Feudal era…"

She was right—finding an expanse that was empty like that in the modern day world almost anywhere was hard enough, but getting a bunch of men to stand about with weapons and armor and horses…unless it was a movie set he didn't think Kagome could've faked it unless she'd used a computer, again. Still he frowned, unable to believe. "Kagome, you can't honestly believe me to think any of this is real!"

Kagome growled to herself and buried her face in her hands. "Oh no…" she moaned, "Why did I think he would believe the _truth…?"_ as if speaking to her baby.

Suddenly her head shot up again, as if she'd had a startling idea how to prove her crazy story to him, but instead of do such a thing she was silent, her eyes staring off into nothing. In her jacket Koinu whimpered, a prelude to crying. But his mother ignored him; instead she turned her head, once again, slowly, and looked over her shoulder, in the direction of the well house…

Hojo felt a shiver race up his spine, "Kagome?" he asked, wondering if she'd lost her sanity sometime between when he'd last seen her when they'd left high school and now. "Are you all right? Are you _with_ me?"

"Shh!" she hissed at him, glaring for a moment, and then, before he could stop her, she hurried out of the storage house, back out toward the snow.

With a sigh Hojo put the strange book away, shaking his head. Where was the girl he remembered? Was the crazy young mother of the dog-eared baby _really_ his Kagome? Disturbed, but loyal till death, Hojo walked out after her.

The bright light of the outside world startled him, making him squint and cringe. Carefully he cupped one hand over his eye and looked around the shrine grounds, scanning for a sign of Kagome…but she was nowhere to be seen…

"Kagome?" he asked the deaf and heedless wind. Mutely it didn't respond—and neither did the young mother. "Kagome!" he tried again, yelling this time. Cautiously, still looking around, Hojo skipped lightly down the stairway. On the last step he stumbled and his arms shot out to balance himself again, his gaze landed on the crusty, snowy earth and he froze.

_Footprints!_ He saw the tracks leading from the house toward the storage shed that he and Kagome had just been in—and on top of those he saw small prints coming out and turning toward the well house, just distant…_She's gone to the well…but why doesn't she answer me?_ Another chill raced down his spine, despite the chuckle that escaped his lips, _there's nothing to worry about…_

He started to follow the prints at a gentle trot, and called, "Kagome?" as he neared the well house…but when a high pitched feminine scream rent the air, shivering through the cold, suddenly haunting and desolate shrine, Hojo felt his heart race.

"Kagome! Kagome, answer me!" but as he dashed up the steps, hearing a rushing, whooshing sound in his ears, and seeing a flickering flash from within, there came no answer but more screaming—this time from both woman and child.

With shaking, terrified hands, Hojo scrabbled at the door, sliding it wide, and then, rushed in, only to gape stupidly on the threshold at what he saw…

* * *

Yes, I know, I'm cruel! Terrible Terrible cliffy! Take a guess if you like...but I gotta get going...the girl just signed off and I smell trouble brewing...Gosh I just want to cry... 


	14. Shimofuri's Rescue

**Disclaimer:** I don't ownInuyasha...

**A/N:** I think that this chapter you all will really come to like even to love Shimofuri. He isn't Sesshomaru by far, neither is his mother for that matter, but Shimofuri is...(sighs) I had an image I was working off for his character, like something crossed between Sesshomaru and another character that I cna't recall...he's different from Taikokajin in numerous ways...(shrugs) I guess you'll just read it and get to know him better eh? Less of a cliffie here...Note: I use a Japanese word again, _chakunan_ I think it was, that means "Firstborn son/heir" and considering that that was how she was thinking of him at the time it made sense for Taikokajin to use it. Next chapter you'll find out what happens to Hojo...hehe...THAT I think will be rewarding. This story is taking off very fast now--I think you guys didn't believe me when I said that it would! (snickers) Now I've proven you wrong! hehe...Okay, pronounciation notes if you want them, I think (not that I'm an expert) Shimofuri and Garou are easy, but a number of you hate the "pink-bitch"'s name. It's better to think of it like this "Taiko Kajin" two words. Pink Beauty in Japanese, I think. I'd pronounce the first one "Tie-ko" and the second one speaks for itself I think, thus: _Tie-ko-ka-jin._ If that helps anyone...probably doesn't...oh well, call her Pinky for all I care (snickers). On with the story!

**One important note: **This chapter is actually taking place on the same evening that Inuyasha and Taikokajin spoke to each other, the chapter called: Demons Cousins Hanyous and the Moon or something like that...anyway, this was happening just before and just after THAT chapter...I hope that it's clear enough later...if it's not review and tell me and I'll try to answer questions and fix it...thank you for listening to me whine...14 pages for you now! On with it!

**

* * *

****Shimofuri's Rescue**

_The man stood over the well's dark entrance, peering down with deep brown eyes that squinted with concentration and hatred. A breeze blew through the trees, shaking and rattling their bone dry and generally leafless branches. The snow was melting with the approach of spring, but the renewal of warmth and the goodness of life did nothing to restore cheer to this stocky man's expression. Indeed, his face was one that had seen nothing but scowls, frowns, snarls, growls, and cruel, humorless smiles._

_And as he bared his fangs over the darkness of the Bone-Eater's well there was no merriment—only sadistic pleasure. _

_Inside one fist he held a ball of crusted snow that he'd scraped up from the remains of footprints that were scattered around the well. It'd taken him several long minutes to linger, tasting the left over scents inside the prints—the stink of various fabrics and other materials he wasn't familiar with as well—before he'd determined that the couple had been through this area…_

_The hanyou's prints came to the well and left it. Beside his marks were a smaller set—but hers didn't leave this spot…just disappeared. It was with **her** that he would find the one he was searching for…_

_He'd already run by the hanyou's estate, seeking that sweet, tasty odor, drooling at the thought of his freedom—the end of an era of imprisonment for his people…but although the adult inuhanyou's scent was there the inuhanyou pup's scent was not. Determined to end the curse before the pink-eyed bitch and the gray-furred dog demon pup discovered the truth, Garou had traced their footprints back to this spot: the well. _

_What lied through the other side? He could sense the magic brewing within its depths. It sang to his bones, as most magic tended to do. Garou was no stranger to dark magic in particular. The well's energy was not evil but it was mysterious, guided and directed by Fate…his hackles rose at it. **This damned well chooses who it lets through and who it doesn't…**_

_Would it let him through to wherever it led? He knew that there were places of magic—portals that served to travel through time, space, and even to other worlds—was this one of those places? Did it harm those that ir rejected? Could it kill those that didn't know its secrets? _

_Ever the cautious creature, Garou stepped back from the structure, snarling in frustration. **That bitch and the pup can't hide there forever…**_

_And suddenly there was a jolt of electricity that reached through his mind. The well's magic surged, ebbing and flowing like a tidal wave. It was as if he were standing on the shores of a magic sea. Hesitantly Garou stepped forward, trying to see through the strange depths…and **there she was!**_

_Heart racing, fangs bared in anticipation, Garou thrust himself over the ledge of the well and into the blackness. The unwitting magic of the Bone-Eater's well swirled around him, and although he wasn't of the right time and had no shards, the dark magic about the beast that fell through its darkness was unquestionable. Begrudgingly it surrounded him and accepted him into its arm, allowing him to do what few would ever achieve: time travel._

* * *

Kagome let loose with another scream that rent the air seemingly in two, and Koinu's crying had become nonstop, all while Hojo could only stare, dumbfounded, at the bulky, brown-eyed, heavily fanged beast that was perched on the Higurashi shrine's ancient well. A terrible gleam shone in the beastly man's eyes, a hungry promise for mutilation and torture and violence. He held Kagome in place with one outstretched hand—that wasn't touching her at all. Hojo couldn't have known, but he _sensed_ that some unexplainable, but unquestionably powerful force was emanating from him nonetheless. And as he watched, as if to confirm his strange suspicions, Hojo saw the vicious looking man curl his arm slightly, and, moving in unison with him, Kagome stepped forward, closer toward the well. Her face was a mask of terror, the bulge in her jacket was screaming with simple fear. 

"Kagome!" he called, willing himself to run and grab her away from the strange man, even if as he yelled her name his knees went weak…

The man, perched atop the well still, glanced in Hojo's direction and an ugly, evil leer took hold of his face. It was so disgusting and animalistic that Hojo thought it had to be a snarl…the insane question popped into his head: _Is that monster human!_

Growling, the beast looked back at Kagome, and the hungry, sickening gleam reentered his expression, but only for a moment before he closed the hand that was hovering only six inches from Kagome's panicked face. When it was closed into a tight fist Kagome's body tightened and she tried to scream again, but the oxygen seemed to be ripped right out of her, and to Hojo's terror she was lifted a good six inches away from the ground, the toes of her tennis shoes were stretching, reaching for something solid—and finding only air.

The man on the well _wasn't_ touching her at all, but a blackness seemed to surround him, a darkness that couldn't be touched by the light of the afternoon light outside. Hojo's body suddenly felt wracked with tremors of terror when he saw Kagome's head loll to one side, passed out or dead, he couldn't tell…

"Kagome!" without even realizing that he was thrusting himself into danger; Hojo raced forward and grabbed the young woman around the middle, hauling her headlong out of the beastly man's strange grip. He landed with her heavy, unconscious form in a heap, just to one side of the well. The earth was dusty and very hard…and Kagome's jacket was screaming in something akin to terror. The sound grated on Hojo's nerves, throwing him into a mental confusion. Instincts he didn't know he had attacked him, demanding that he help the crying baby, despite the fact that the best was still—

He didn't have time to finish the thought before an absolutely inhuman snarling reached his consciousness…he looked up. The thing that had been perched on the well was now standing beside Kagome's fallen body. With a stunned horror he saw that the beast's eyes _glowed_, they flickered like Jack-o-lantern's, as if lite from the inside by a flame. The darkness that he thought he'd seen before had followed the man's movement, and now Hojo could see—with a dreadful realism—that the stuff _was_ there. It followed the man like a cape; it flowed around him like water, always moving, like tentacles or snakes, weaving this way and that to an invisible ocean current.

"_Damn human…"_ the beast sneered at him, and Hojo felt a sudden coldness, a certainty, that he was about to die somehow, and that he would be unable to help Kagome or Koinu. The pup's screaming had receded only into the shadow of memory as the monster from the well leaned closer to him, one hand outstretched, palm facing him.

Hojo's muscles snapped taut and he felt his head fall backwards as he lost control over his body. Without him willing it to do so, he stood up, all the while his focus and consciousness was growing steadily weaker…he felt the pull of gravity on his body and then heard someone—himself, he realized with a sharp jolt—screaming faintly. And then all faded into blackness.

The last thing he recalled through it all was the neverending screaming of Koinu as the pup tried to reclaim his mother's attention in vain…

* * *

A large grayish-blue dog lifted his ears attentively, his nose twitching slightly, taking in the wind. Sharp, shining bluish eyes glittered with intelligence as he watched the Bone-Eater's well from the brush. The birds stirred in the trees above him, the afternoon was warm and they were wasting not a single moment of it in their quest for food. His own stomach growled and twisted, longing for a little sustenance too, but Shimofuri refused to abandon his spot. _Garou came through here only minutes ago…_

He had been trailing the furui-demon for the better part of the day, intending to assure him of the tradeoff that Taikokajin had set up with the hanyou named Inuyasha. Garou probably didn't know that Shimofuri was trailing him—the young inuyoukai knew that the furui-demons didn't rely on their noses as his kind did—but even so Garou rarely stopped and kept up an extremely swift pace. The furui never spent any large amount of time in any one place…and this well had been the last spot that Shimofuri could scent him in.

He'd already investigated the well and knew, with any basic youkai's sixth sense for such things, that it was a place of power. It was possessed by magic, and powerful magic at that. He knew nothing of it—and didn't try to learn more by leaping in—just sat and waited for the furui's return…

And it wasn't too long in coming.

The grayish-blue dog's eyes suddenly narrowed and he rose to his feet, coming to the edge of the brush and ducking low, holding his breath. He didn't know the furui's senses very well—if the demon could _hear_ exceptionally well then he'd so everything he could to remain hidden until the proper time. His muscles quivered they were held so tautly, ready to spring. He felt the surge of the well's magic, lasing like a tidal wave through the meadow, and tensed even further when a rough breathing reached his sensitive ears.

_He's coming…_

Grunts and growling followed as the thick, heavy man pulled himself from the well's depths. Immediately when he reached the surface Shimofuri tensed, about to spring…until he scented multiple creatures with Garou. Pausing, he took several deep breaths…_a mortal woman…_and…**_an inuhanyou pup!_**

Fear raced through him, making his muscles shiver all over again, but this time with more than the promise of playing the negotiation and diplomat game that his mother had asked him to do for her—for his _half-sister._ This time he was shaking in realization and raw, unaltered fear.

His mind raced. The keen, grayish-blue eyes narrowed suspiciously as Garou hauled out a limp form from his shoulders, dropping it roughly down to sit, propped up against the well.

The shape was the woman, Shimofuri thought; judging from the long, smooth black hair that flowed about her white jacket. She was unfamiliar to him—and apparently a stranger to Japan as well! Her clothing was bizarre. He could make out loose pants with two white parallel lines running down the sides. Her feet were shrouded in a strange hodge-podge of color, strings and material that Shimofuri had never seen before. Poking from the edges of her puffy white jacket he saw folds of reddish material—a tunic maybe? He couldn't be sure…

Although he tried, Shimofuri was unable to see the woman's face, her black hair obscured it as her head lolled forward, letting the thick black curtain obscure his view. But despite this Shimofuri could easily _smell_ that she was young and mated, or married perhaps, as the humans always called it. She was also a new mother—he could scent the sweet, lingering thickness of lactation…_and_ then of course there was the pup's scent, hanging all over her…but where was the pup?

His question was immediately answered when Garou knelt beside the unconscious woman's body and reached out toward the white jacket, claws extended to their fullest. Shimofuri cringed when he heard the angry hissing and growling of the material ripping apart…but Garou stopped just as he had begun, stiffening, when a mournful, terrified wailing tore through the air.

Shimofuri's senses reeled—_the pup!_ It was an inuhanyou…an _inuhanyou male…_

Roaring, he leapt forward before Garou could move any further, his fur bristling, his fangs bared in a menacing snarl. His white canines gleamed, eager to do his bidding. The gray-blue of his eyes seemed to shrink, giving way to the whites of his eyes. He was a wild beast suddenly, armed and ready to tear the other demon apart.

Garou looked momentarily startled, and then a rippling growl issued from the depths of his throat, and he clearly bared his own fangs, sneering at the inuyoukai pup. "You damned stupid _dog!"_

Shimofuri's fur shivered and bristled anew as he recognized the outburst for what it was: desperation and frustration. Garou had been caught in the midst of something important. Shimofuri wasn't about to let him get away with it unchallenged.

He leapt forward, snarling, mouth open for the attack.

The man sidestepped the beast, swishing the air with his hand as if it were a blade as he did so. A murky blackness swept outward with his movement and connected with Shimofuri's hindquarters.

Searing pain tore through the young inuyoukai and he howled, half in pain, half in rage. Whipping round he stumbled in the snow, his back legs buckled underneath him and he slid—into a pile of crunchy snow. The hot pain that had engulfed his body immediately ceased, although the young youkai felt abruptly drained…_what power is he wielding? _

Shimofuri rose to his paws again, stiffening his stance and facing Garou with a vicious display snarling. The blue-gray orbs glittered with hatred and rage.

Garou regarded him with something akin to disgusted amusement. "So, we finally come down to the _real_ fighting, do we, Shimo-chan?" he snickered, sarcastically. "This is where I am _most_ comfortable…"

Shimofuri lunged forward without giving the other demon a chance to prepare. He relied on the swiftness of his youthful paws, and the ease and agility that had been passed onto him from each of his ancestors. He would _not_ make the mistake of charging Garou so lightly again. He had thought to scare the furui away, but now he played for a _real_ score, a real bite. He planned to sink his teeth into the demon's flesh.

As Shimofuri drew closer Garou realized with a jolt of alarm that he wouldn't be able to attack and sidestep the mongrel this time…he could only run away or risk injury while trying to wound Shimofuri again. Although he would've loved to kill and maim the pup for disturbing him in such a precarious moment, he couldn't risk his own health in a battle…

What about the pup…? 

Without another rthought he rushed toward where the woman was still slouched against the well's base, her jacket torn slightly at the front, the child's screams still coming from within unceasingly. His mind worked quickly, summoning the darkness of his ancient powers, willing them and shaping them…he reached the tear in the jacket, trying to touch the infant that was squalling inside…

Shimofuri was too fast for him.

Garou screamed, feeling how own pain and his own blood spurt into the open air for the first time in a millennia as the inuyoukai pup took hold of one of his legs, biting into the calf muscle. The pup's canines sliced mercilessly through muscle and nearly into the bone. Tearing and shearing and shaking the other demon's body, jerking him about almost uncontrollably…and Garou's hand, bearing the dark powers and their preordained spell, landed not on the little pup's body, but on the unconscious woman's thigh.

A shock of electricity moved through Garou's hand, through his body, and into Shimofuri through his teeth. The inuyoukai, snarling in confusion, withdrew, shaking his head furiously. Blood droplets flew through the air, splattered the white, crusty snow, stained the pup's bluish-gray fur a dark, ugly brown.

Garou fell backwards, stumbling from the jolt, snarling in continued pain. Blood dripped and streamed in steady rivulets from his torn leg muscles. His fear and shock at the wound was almost as thick and cloying in the air as the smell of blood was to the inuyoukai that had attacked him. Snarling anew, Shimofuri's canines were covered in livid, bright red blood.

Breathing shakily Garou stared at Shimofuri and then, slowly, began to snarl back, almost as viciously. "Come on and get me, little Shimo-chan, just like your bitch told you _not_ to do…"

Shimofuri abruptly stood still, his face suddenly expressionless. Images of his mother and half sister swirled through his mind, haunting him. Taikokajin had instructed him to remain the civil diplomat and he had just done exactly the opposite…_Garou could kill Tsukiyume now as punishment for my foolishness…_

"Yes, you damn inuyoukai mutt!" Garou leered at him from a good, safe distance of fifteen feet, still bleeding heavily into the snow, "Now you can tell that bitch of yours that her little hanyou will be the life I drain to heal the wounds that _you_ gave me." he grinned sadistically, licking his almost purple-colored lips.

Shimofuri snarled once, quietly, at the thought, and then he took one very heavy and calculated step forward. He was telling Garou that rather than let his half-sister perish at Garou's disgusting claws he would finish the job that he'd started…but Garou had a way of combat this too.

"Stay Shimo-chan—stay!" despite the words the demon's tone was cynical, even sickly amused, "If you kill me now you'll never know where I've stored your bitch's hanyou whelp…" Garou smirked once more when the inuyoukai's careful, plotted approach ceased, and the blue-gray eyes widened slightly.

_There is no way out of this…_Shimofuri thought, his mind still racing…it grabbed hold of the one thing that had made him lose control in the first place—the tiny pup's wailing…Garou _needed_ that pup for some reason. He had risked injury to try and grab the pup, and _only_ the pup. The woman he treated just as if she were a wrapper…a pretty outside covering to the sweet candy underneath.

The young inuyoukai summoned his human form up from out of his inner depths, closing his eyes for one second before opening them again, this time standing before the other demon in his traditional garb—a light blue kimono with a matching obi and armor that was tied with a bright yellow sash. He regarded the bleeding, sneering Garou silently for several seconds, a chilly spring breeze snatching up his long, bluish-black hair, tendrils of it swished in the wind.

"Garou," he finally murmured, coldly, "Why are you so interested in that woman's pup?"

The demon before him seemed stoic and unaffected, but Shimofuri could scent the abrupt change in him—he was uncertain. But even so he ran his bleckish tongue over his lips slowly, and bore his fangs savagely, "Why do you think, Shimo-chan?"

Shimofuri, although he refused to reveal it on his face, didn't believe the other demon for a second. Slowly he backstepped until he was standing beside the screaming pup and the collapsed mortal woman. "You could stand to lose a few pounds." He muttered, unable to hide the disgust such a thought held for him. Eyes on Garou's suddenly nervous face, Shimofuri knelt and reached for the wailing infant, gently.

Garou hissed, trying to dart forward, but his wounds made him painfully slow, and Shimofuri already had the child cradled with one hand to his chest while the other hand was raised defensively. The ancient demon was already heavily injured—he couldn't risk even the slightest scrape by the inuyoukai's poisoned claws. As old as he was his soul had long since lost any ties to the living earth, it was only his will and the dark magic that he commanded so completely that kept him there at all—that and the souls of the hanyous that had sustained him for millennia upon millennia.

_Without that damn pup…_he snarled bitterly, his breathing suddenly ragged with desperation. _What the hell else is there to tempt this damned dog with anyway!_ But he could already see that Shimofuri was close to having figured out the truth. Shimofuri would never be willing to trade the male inuhanyou's pup for even his bitch's hanyou whelp…and then his eyes drifted to the unconscious human woman's form…the smell of milk had been apparent on her, she was the pup's _mother_…and that meant she was the mate to the adult male inuhanyou…the one called Inuyasha…

A tiny smirk grew over his face and Garou willed the dark strands of magic within him, flexing his fingers, and stirred his memory of the contact with the young mother's thigh…much to his delight he felt a warmth flush him, sensed a slow heartbeat, a strong soul encased within her rather frail human body, teeming with spiritual power and the pure, cleansing magic of the miko…his eyes drifted back to Shimofuri, who was still clutching the infant and glaring at Garou, daring him to expose himself. Garou smiled cynically, and he tightened his hand into a powerful fist.

The woman against the well sat straight up, her mouth wide and gasping for air. Shimofuri jerked his gaze in that direction and a silent snarl broke over his face.

"Though you might've wounded me, Shimo-chan," Garou sneered, twisting his closed fist sharply in one direction, making the woman open her eyes wide in terror and then fall exhaustedly toward the snow again, "I have that human bitch's soul under my power."

Shimofuri stared at him with something that was between horror and rage, but said nothing as Garou continued, "If you and your mother don't send the hanyou Inuyasha to me with that pup in hand," he paused to stare at Shimofuri in silent promise, "Then I will _kill_ the human bitch and slaughter that pink-eyed bitch's whelp—got that Shimo-chan? You damn stinking dog!" he spat disgustedly onto the snow in front of him and gave a short, ugly cackle. "Either way you shitty dogs lose seomthing—either you give up the pup and the hanyou or you let the whelp and the bitch die and risk that Inuyasha's famous wrath…"

Growling, Shimofuri started forward, only to _see_ as well as _feel_ a surge of black magic rise from the other demon, swirling and weaving straight toward him and the pup he still had cradled against him. Shimofuri stumbled backward, avoiding the strange blackness, the pup screaming shrilly still into his chest, though it also clung to him for dear life.

Then—as fast as it had rushed forward—the darkness dissipated and faded. Still growling, Shimofuri tried to hurry forward again, to attack the despicable Garou, only to find that the demon was already running away, leaving a red trail behind him. In the distant trees birds scattered as the strange beast that was not wolf or dog or bear or cat limped swiftly through the forest. Besides the trail of red stained snow, he also left behind clear, large five-toed footprints.

Alone in the meadow now Shimofuri stood, still as a stone, the screaming child still fussing in his arms. Slowly he looked down at it, as if noticing it for the first time, and his face cleared of the stiffness of moments before. The pup was adorable—much like his half-sister. The baby had white dog-ears that were currently turned backward and held that way through his tears and wailing cries. The pup's hair was silver-white, and the eyes an icy blue. The child's scent clearly rang true as part inuyoukai, and, more importantly than that, the scent was also _clearly_ from his own clan. Although Shimofuri had never before seen Inuyasha he suspected that the pup's appearance was _very_ much like the legendary hanyou's, as this pup didn't resemble its mother at all.

Uncertainly Shimofuri stroked the baby's tiny white ears, only to see the infant turn his head away and howl even louder. He sighed, as strange, half-formed, primitive emotions rolled off the child in waves. The young inuyoukai summoned up a low purring sort of growl that he hoped Inuyasha knew how to do and tried stroking the baby's ears again. As a tiny pup himself Shimofuri's father had held him and sung in just such a deep, comforting voice, the song of the carnivore. He hoped that that would get through the Inuyasha's pup now too…

And to his relief the mixture of purring and stroking worked, the baby's cries quieted and eventually ceased completely. Then, exhaustedly, the pup snuggled into Shimofuri's kimono and closed his eyes, instantly asleep.

The inuyoukai sighed heavily and turned back toward the pup's mother, still unconscious on the snow. His face fell. Garou's words were clear in his memory: _"I have that human bitch's soul under my power."_ Shimofuri had already been nervous about his mother's plans to tamper with the legendary hanyou himself but now they had unwittingly become involved with his _family._ A young inu-demon, either full demon or only half, were as fiercely loyal as wolves—_especially _of their mates and closest kin. Dogs, unlike wolves, lived in smaller family units, and were more likely to be loyalist to those small groups. Young recently mated, new fathers were _the_ most protective youkai one could come across…_and now my mother has just brough Garou's attention to Inuyasha's mate and pup. With what the legends say of Inuyasha I think it's likely that the entire dog demon clan could receive punishment at Inuyasha's claws…_

Instinctively he gripped the pup a little more firmly, a little more protectively. The baby's ears twitched in its sleep and the almost naked pup shivered against him. Carefully Shimofuri wrapped his other hand over the pup, shielding him from the cold. Although the pup was not his own—he was still barely more than a teenager in the inuyoukai world himself—he could still feel the instincts blooming within him at this pup's fagility. After all, somewhere inside this baby a little of his own blood stirred in the ancient lineage of the dog demon clan.

Cautiously he walked forward and knelt beside the unconscious mother. Pushing her back up against the well he was startled by how _cold_ her flesh was. _Garou wasn't lying…_he sighed at the realization. The furui demon controlled the dark powers and Shimofuri didn't doubt for a moment that Garou could and would suck the young mother's soul slowly away from her. Already he could feel the woman's weakness, and the problem would only grow more and more…

Gently he tucked the tiny pup into his kimono, securing him tightly, before he reached for the limp mother and carefully shrugged her over his shoulders. In a moment he was walking away from the well and out of the meadow. He would walk until he was well away from human civilization—and well away from Inuyasha's estate—before he would call to his mother and between the two of them they'd bring the mother and Inuyasha's pup to safety before working from there…

Time was running out.

* * *

That night wasthe evening thatInuyasha sat down to watch after Kohimu and Tisoki until they were disturbed by Taikokajin and the deal was made for the tradeoff, although Inuyasha did not know of it. And as Taikokajin left Inuyasha's estate and crossed over the snowy hills, she felt victory and relief rushing through her veins…until she heard the mournful cry of her son rise from in the distance. She knew him so well that his tone alone told her that there was trouble. 

The pink-eyed inuyoukai rushed to meet her son's call. The couple met on a tall, rounded snow-covered hill where immediately she was stunned to see her son had cleared a ring of snow and discarded his outer kimono to provide a place of shelter for an unconscious mortal woman. But as she drew nearer her nose caught one whiff of the scene in front of her and Taikokajin felt her knees quake. _What is going on…?_

"Shimofuri." She bowed slightly to her son through the blue moonlight. Her pink eyes glistened.

"Mother," Shimofuri answered her, bowing lower than she had to him, but rather than keep his hands at his sides they cupped a strange bulge in his kimono—Taikokajin briefly wondered if her son was pregnant or just a pig. But when the scent, and sound of a baby reached her ears even she couldn't withhold the gasp that escaped her lips.

Shimofuri's eyes were keen when he stared at his mother after the bow.

"That human is—" he didn't give her time to finish.

"Inuyasha's mate, yes Mother, she is."

"And does that mean I can presume that the pup inside your kimono is—" once more he spoke before her soft, stunned voice could finish.

His tone was curt and unemotional, "Inuyasha's son? Yes, this pup _must_ be his."

She stared at her son, the pink eyes dark and calculating, solving their problems out, "What does this mean?" she asked, her tone suspicious.

"It means that Inuyasha will no longer _walk_ into your simple trap, Mother. We were wrong about Garou—we almost lost _everything."_ At that he frowned and almost whispered the rest, "We probably _have_ lost everything."

"I don't understand…" Taikokajin tried to restrain her shaking, but thoughts of her little daughter formed inside her mind, unbidden. She saw her child's blood staining the snow and the ground. She saw her baby's innocent eyes cold and lifeless. She blinked back her tears and stiffened, "Garou did this?" she concluded.

"Yes, Mother. We thought he wanted Inuyasha—and maybe he still does, but this pup is also a target it seems. I wounded him Mother…" Shimofuri lowered his eyes, hiding his worry, fear, and even shame, "But not before he assured me that he has control over Inuyasha's mate's soul. If we don't give him Inuyasha and the pup he will kill the human mother _and_ Tsukiyume."

Taikokajin looked momentarily as if she would collapse, and then her form hardened and she looked at her son sharply. "I _will not_ lose my daughter!" she hissed, hands clenched into fists, "And this Garou _will not_ get away with these crimes against our kind!"

Her son's gaze was bright and warm as he stared at his mother, admiring her determination, but wondering if it wasn't hopeless. His mother's next words were softer, thoughtful, contemplative, "With such a choice before him, Shimofuri," Taikokajin murmured, "Which would Inuyasha choose? His child, or his mate?"

Shimofuri frowned, "Mother, I couldn't begin to guess…"

His mother smiled thinly, "Neither could I…" she thought hard for a moment on it. As a hanyou Inuyasha likely dealt with persecution and rejection from _most_ humans and demons. Truly his only kin were other half-demons. But Inuyasha had found acceptance in the arms of a human woman…her eyes darted to where the thin, frail woman had been lied out carefully by her son. How many hanyous had survived to bear children as Inuyasha had? Very, _very_ few…males in particular were rare. And for the offspring of a hanyou to be so strong as the pup—scent told her—was, Taikokajin suspected that both Inuyasha and the mortal woman must've been very strong, in every way to produce such a successful child in their union.

If Inuyasha had to choose she guessed the choice would be double-edged all the way around. If the hanyou chose his mate he might never be so blessed as to have a baby again, and if he chose his pup instead he would likely never find another mate ever again—let alone one that could bear him more pups. As a mother she knew that her pups meant worlds more to her…the choice, if she were Inuyasha, was clear…but she wasn't.

Don't make him choose… 

A small, but real smile of triumph awoke over her features. "Shimofuri," she spoke quietly but with authority.

Her son looked up swiftly, and, strangely, she saw that his hands had remained in protective positions over the prominent bulge in his kimono where the hanyou's pup was still hidden. "Yes, Mother?" his voice and face were both devoid of expression and emotion.

"Inuyasha, as you warned me before I went to visit him at his estate, is surprisingly powerful. He impressed me." she nodded her head once in acknowledgement of her own words, to give them silent emphasis, and was satisfied when she saw Shimofuri's attention on her was avid and unquestioning, so she continued on. "What have you observed of Garou?"

The blue-gray eyes remained steadfastly locked on hers. "He is powerful. He weilds dark magic as I have never seen before, but he is thick and slow. His natural form is much like a cat and wolf crossbred. He cannot smell as well as we can. I know little else, other than that he is savage and at times cunning." His eyes narrowed slightly, cutting off the gleam of the moonlight in his eyes, a detail that caught his mother's attention, made her listen carefully just as he had intended, "However, his first and foremost weakness is the fear of physical harm."

Taikokajin gave on short, swift, angry laugh, "He's a coward? That wouldn't be hard even for Tsukiyume to defeat!"

Shimofuri fixed his mother with a stern look, momentarily they seemed to have switched places, "No, Mother, you forget the dark magic. He does not need to touch his victims to harm them. Scent me, Mother, I was injured."

She stiffened and he heard her take one large, long breath inward. After a moment she hissed, "You were burned."

He nodded, solemnly. "I underestimated him."

Taikokajin was silent for a long moment, thinking over her decision. Once again she came to the same conclusion and looked up, her pink gaze shining and unflinching in the darkness, "Shimofuri," she ordered curtly, "We will keep Inuyasha's mate and his son as leverage against Inuyasha. If Inuyasha wants them back he will slay Garou for us and return Tsukiyume as well."

Her son was alarmed, she could see it in the way his head moved sharply, up and then back down, as if he were giving her a half-bow. What had so surprised him, she wondered?

"You are displeased, _chakunan_?" she asked, her tone was sharp, almost enough to intimidate him, but she trusted that her son wouldn't deny her the truth. She had come to value his aid in her diplomatic and militant efforts—infact she had come to believe that he would one day make a fine ruler over their family's traditional territory. A fine heir…but this time he surprised her.

"No, Mother," he bowed low to her, still clutching gently at the pup in his kimono, "I am not displeased."

She eyed him warily for several moments and then, assuming that he must've seen her logic, or already found a hole within his own thoughts, she nodded, "Good then," with one delicate but firmly clawed hand, she gestured toward the mortal woman, "Take his mate and the pup to our lands. Make them _comfortable_ guests during their stay." She turned to leave him but Shimofuri cleared his throat, summoning a questioning glance from mother to son. "Yes?"

"Mother, may I ask what will happen to them if Inuyasha should fail, or Tsukiyume perhaps for whatever reason doesn't survive this…" he made sure that his voice and each word wthin his sentence was tight and without emotional attachment. He didn't want to stir his mother's suspicion or wrath.

Taikokajin smiled at her gray-eyed son—but the motion had no mirth in it. "Then we shall keep them as family. We would raise the pup—perhaps _you_ could adopt him."

"…And the woman?"

"She could be one of our servants." The pink-eyed inuyoukai woman shrugged and turned her back once more on her son. Slowly her dainty steps lead her away from the snow-topped hill and away from her son, who was suddenly frowning intensely. Inside his kimono the pup squirmed and whimpered, smelling of hunger, and the still very young inuyoukai male sighed.

_Mother, I pray you aren't setting our clan up for annihilation…_

* * *

_Endnotes:_ THANK YOU TO ALL REVIEWERS! WE'RE ALMOST TO 200 REVIEWS BY NOW! YAYS! (throws a BIG party, serves cookies and punch!) YAYS! 

_**FYI IY is mine**_ you scream? Goodness! It's like I'm murdering you! (snickers) _**Yami Chikara**_ I updated just for you! I cna't have you boycotting you know! And besides, you were so kind as to investigate my latest story, _I Miss You_ so I THANK YOU in big letters! _**Tiamath**_ thank you so much! You do sum up the "near-graduation" situation well, and I REALLY appreciate the compliment with the consideration of what I do go through...not having a math class has made my life easy enough for me to do this...and overall my life is pretty simple, so it's not that hard...but my Miroku IS obnoxious...I'm going to stay away from them...but thank you for the advice and the concern, you're definately right about him, and I DO worry about her, but it's out of my hands, if I try to warn her much it looks bad, like my intentions are untrue. (sighs) but thank you nonetheless! _**The Moonless Night**_ WOW! What a review! (grins proudly) I got a lot of that with my last two updates for SWFM and this story...I guess I was just doing realy good that time! But don't get too excited...I can mess up too (grins sheepishly) But THANK YOU! Gosh, I grinned reading your review! (shakes head in wonderment) I LOVE you guys! _**Taigo**_ hehehe...(grins) that's all i can say...now you know..._** inuyasha'sbabe07**_ now YOU are the secret to why I like (love?) cliffies...becuase then you guys respond and run around the halls like madmen and madwomen...hehhe...youre reviews are SO fun to read! (gosh I'm evil...(grins) Love the enthusiasm! heather thank you...the situation is a little better now...sorry this is a little longer in coming... _**TheDarkAngel101**_ all I can say again is...hehehehe (I LOVE your guy's reviews!) _**SerenaClearwater**_ I take it you're in the "Hojo died" supporters eh? (considers) I liked your comments on Taro and Souta and Hojo's disbelief. Everyone else (and that was funny too!) got caught up on the fact that that was like my third cliffie in a row (grins) Yes, Taro's a pervert, but that's hoe guys can be... _**NefCanuck**_Thank you...I like your description, the simile (or is it metaphor? Oh gosh I'm proving to you all how dumb I really am!) do you write your own stuff? _**Lena17**_ ah yes, me and my evil self...(makes her own evil laugh)(winks) _**sarah**_ Thank you...hope you enjoy this update! _**kirarakitty**_ goodness girl! You are my watchdog! In answer to your question I described what she was wearing in this chapter when Shimo-chan rescued her from Garou. As for the chapter before that I don't mention her changing (you GOT me! (falls over dead)) but let's pretend that she had time...(whimpers) please? _**Simonkal of Inyu**_ Gosh, I hope you didn't starve in my absence, I'm sorry. (worried eyes) sorry, you wish it'd been something so benign but unfortunately I AM evil...as you said I'm horrible...hehehe...(thinks she likes the evil laugh now...) _**Mad-4-Manga**_ hey! You're back! Or have you been back for a while and I'm only just smart enough to notice it now? (blinks) oh well...thank you...glad your research project is over, Lord knows I hate 'em too...and I'm working on SWFM's epilogue right now... _**angelpup**_ hehehe...I know...(more evil laughter) _**Sesshomaru13**_ WELCOME! I saw your brief review to "hanyou" now you're onto the sequel! YAYS! _**Cindy**_ Really? and THANK YOU! As a reader who gets to take in all of one and then see where I've gotten to I believe you...all of you actually! But, how, if I may ask? See I didn't think I was better, actually thought I was degrading...(sighs) ah well.. and Thank you for commenting on my new characters...my OCs...How do you like Shimo-chan? _**cool-chick-rae**_ Thank you! I appreciate it! I know it gets tougher every year...this year when your seniors graduate it's gonna hit you: you're next...but not until this late in your senior year will it actually FEEL real...mind boggling...

Well I gotta go...sorry no preview again...I'll be on watch for the 200th reviewer! YAY!


	15. Never Coincidence

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Inu...

**A/N:** I am MUCHO sorry for my delay in posting...I got sick on Wednesday (dizzy spells) saw the Doc on Thursday, had a choir performance AND a dance Friday evening/night, and then ANOTHER stupid choir performance on Saturday...(BIG sigh) Thus I had like ailch time to write the update let alone post it...But I have come through finally! I hope you guys haven't abandoned me...(searches the far reaches or the Internet...(whimpers))...Kay, this answers the question of _Did Hojo live or die?_ It also covers a little bit more of Shimo-chan...(And by the way..._shishi _means "male heir" in Japanese)it's also a little funny and also (takes a deep proud breath) it's also inspired me to attempt a one-shot (inspiration is in one paragraph...one-shot, if I ever get it done right and have time, would be called "Hungry Like The Wolf.") AND this chapter slaps Inu with a little bit of reality over his jealousy...Thank you Mrs. H! But of course, one can't change one's nature, no matter how much one knows that it's wrong...I just loved the set up here, Inuyasha screams "_WHAT!"_ a lot and it's funny...(snickers) well on to the writing/reading, eh?

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* * *

****Never Coincidence**

Inuyasha jerked awake violently and sat bolt upright, his golden eyes dancing feverishly across the room. His ears swiveled as if bombarded by sounds from all directions. One clawed hand twisted through the covers and blankets, searching for the warmth of another, soft, smooth, inviting, full of love, and oh so good smelling…the claws and the searching fingertips just beyond them found nothing.

Sadly the hanyou slumped back down to the futon below, but his spine was stiff, his mind aroused with worrying premonitions. Hanyou-eating demons, monsters that stalked the shadows, his brother's poisoned talons scraping after Kagome and Koinu…so many dangers. _Damn them all!_

He climbed from the futon, mourning internally as he slid over the empty spot where his mate and wife would've normally been sleeping, her arms or legs draped across his form, her head lolling on his shoulder or his chest. He loved waking up and smelling her next to him each morning…but as he stirred this time, seeing the red light of dawn creep through the shades and screens, there was no scent. Of course today that didn't really mean a thing. This was the day before the night of the new moon, a time when his senses began a swift downturn, becoming duller and duller until finally after the sun set he was reduced to living in a merely human state.

For several moments Inuyasha stood straight as a rod, ears alert, eyes closed, taking in only what his ears and other ore delicate senses allowed. Every morning he tended to do this, letting his youkai senses take a taste of the world without his eyesight barging in on things. If he closed off the dominant sense he was able to open himself up to the deeper feelings—for instance he knew that today it would likely be warm again, a nice spring day. The morning's fresh, bright atmosphere made the flesh of his bare chest prickle briefly in a goose bumps before the hanyou abandoned his moment of quiet observation and moved to dress.

I have to visit Kagome and tell her to stay put right where she is until I kill that damned monster…

Not five minutes later the hanyou was stepping furtively down his own hallway, trying to sneak out of his own house. As he passed the other bedrooms he paused before each, taking stock of what everyone else in the household was up to. Miroku and Sango were asleep with Kasai—he could hear their steady, rhythmic breathing and heartbeats as he passed. The same was true for Shippo, Kohimu and Tisoki as well…it seemed like he was home free—literally so.

As quietly as he could, Inuyasha left the house, not even bothering to put on his shoes—not that he had any to begin with—and headed straight for the well that would let him through time.

When he reached it for the firs time that day Inuyasha stopped, suddenly alarmed. The meadow that housed the well was usually unremarkable. The hanyou never found anything interesting about it, although it _did_ have an interesting history. He had fought for Kagome and the still unborn Koinu in that meadow with his brother. The well was the very place that had brought her to him. The well was the place where he knew she could always be safe—or rather she would always be _safer_ there then she was on this side of it…

But this morning Inuyasha's senses reeled as he stepped into the meadow. Even to his fading senses the scent of blood was clear—not to mention he could see the splatters of it in the snow. Carefully he took in the air, searching for _what_ had left the fluids. At the same time, although he was certain that the blood was at least a few hours old, Inuyasha listened carefully to the meadow. Only birds cheeped occasionally, welcoming the spring morning. But the blood and the remaining scents of the area were not nearly as innocent…

_An inuyoukai and… _the other scent—which he thought was from the blood because it lingered here the strongest, was indeterminate. It smelled unlike anything he had ever encountered. A chill rushed through him as he suddenly realized that the scent _was_ familiar to him after all—it was nearly the same as the one left by the five-toed creature that had left its prints outside his estate…

Coincidence? 

Inuyasha had been around long enough to know better than to shrug off something like this. It was _not_ coincidence with _his_ luck…he was suddenly _very_ glad that he had left Kagome and Koinu on the other side of the well, and glad that Taikokajin had warned him. He strode forward to the well quickly and jumped into it, fearlessly…yet as he fell through the darkness something felt different and worry rushed through him. _What if…_but no, that was impossible…Kagome and Koinu were safe with the Higurashi family.

He landed in the darkness of of the well's future side and leapt straight up, perching on the well for a few moments to glance around once…and just as he stepped off the edges…he smelled _it._

The hanyou's body stiffened. _That five-toed beast has been on **this** side of the well too…_and then he felt a shiver of terror whisper through him. _Kagome and Koinu!_ He rushed to the well house's door and nearly tore it open in his frantic rush to get onto the Higurashi shrine. Stepping out into the early morning sunshine he paused, closing his eyes in concentration. His nose worked like a bloodhound's adrenaline fueling his senses to their sharpest…he was searching for the scent of his mate and child. _They were here…_but that meant little—they _lived_ here. Kagome had left her scent here for years, all her life actually…but when he inhaled a second time the amber eyes snapped open and the ears fell back as horror mingled with terror inside him.

The scent that he was picking up now was _recent_. It _had _to be. It was clearly Kaogme's but there was one thing in it that left him with no doubt that she had to have left it within the last few hours—_just like the blood on the Feudal era side of the well…_

It was milk.

Inuyasha rushed to the front door of the Higurashi household, half leaping and half running, his red fire-rat robes flared out behind him as he moved. All thought of subtlety was vanished. He pounded—hard—on the Higurashi's front door and paced restlessly back and forth, waiting for them to answer. When there was a slight delay—no more than thirty seconds—Inuyasha began to consider tearing the door down. But before he actually became that desperate Sota appeared, scowling against the light.

"Inuyasha?" he blinked, but already the hanyou had pushed past his wife's younger brother roughly, breathing loudly, trying to scent Kagome's presence or lack thereof. As he tromped into the living room first, and then peeked his head into the kitchen, continuing to snuffle like a pig searching for slop, Sota followed, dazedly, always on the edge of calling out the hanyou's name but always stopping himself in favor of watching his brother-in-law's antics. Finally when he could bare it no more—and Inuyasha had begun to charge up the stairs, loud and wordlessly—Sota cleared his throat, asking, "What are you doing, Inuyasha?"

Stopping half way up the stairs, as if he had forgotten what he was doing or where he was going, the hanyou paused. His ears turned backward slowly, as if he'd only just realized that Sota was there at all. Then he whirled and faced the youth, his amber eyes narrowed in something between suspicion and annoyance. "Where's Kagome!"

Sota blinked, confusedly. "What?" he was somewhere between surprised and afraid and the mixture struck Inuyasha like a cannonball—_they don't know anything's wrong…_

"Where is Kagome!" he repeated, louder and harsher this time, his white fangs gleaming.

A voice from at the top of the stairs caught Inuyasha's ear then and he rounded on it, eyes ablaze, as if he might attack…but it was only Mrs. Higurashi, shrouded in a robe, her hair and face still messy from sleep. "Sota? Inuyasha? What's going on?" she looked from her natural born son to the half-demon that called her mother by law. Her face clouded in frustration. "Is this about Hojo?"

Sota desperately tried to mime signals to his mother to keep her from divulging anything further—he could only pray that the hanyou didn't remember Kagome's former human suitor…but that one name _was_ enough to stir Inuyasha's memory. He _never_ forgot rivals…

"_Who!"_ he growled, fists clenching, "Where the _hell_ is Kagome!" he repeated, turning round to glare once at Sota, who stopped his hopeless gesturing at his mother with a guilty choking sound and a flimsy smile.

"I thought that she was with _you!"_ Mrs. Higurashi blinked.

Inuyasha crossed his arms and scowled. He was _so_ tempted to call her stupid, but she was his wife's mother and he knew that even among demons such behavior would be scoffed at and scorned as unbelievably rude. So he held his tongue and instead threw out, "Feh! Would I be here asking that if she _was_ with me!"

That seemed to finally reach Mrs. Higurashi and Sota. From behind the hanyou Sota cautiously asked, "You mean…you _didn't_ come through the well yesterday afternoon and find her with Hojo…?"

"_WHAT!"_

He whirled to face Sota, his amber eyes wide and feral. The youth cringed and talked _very_ fast to save his skin from his brother-in-law's rather sharp and deadly claws. "Yesterday-Hojo-came-over-and-Kagome-talked-with-him-and-went-outside-and-later-we-found-Hojo-passed-out-by-the-well-alone!" he squeaked with his terror.

Inuyasha growled like an animal and stomped past Sota, choosing to pace rather than stare at the youth and fight the instinct to rip him apart. Mrs. Higurashi and her son stared at him while he moved, dumb with worry, until finally Kagome's mother cleared her throat and called his name, "Inuyasha…?"

"What?" he snarled, without even looking at her. His mind was churning over and over with the terrible, unthinkable things that might've happened to his wife and tiny son…as well as trying to deny the little voice of jealousy that ad arisen inside him to learn that an old suitor had returned to hit on his mate again…didn't humans understand that by _every_ right Kagome was his and his alone! Even Kouga had followed the demon code of conduct when Kagome had officially taken him as her mate…he still smirked fondly remembering how _that_ visit had gone. The wolf had breezed in, eager to claim "his woman" now that the threat of Naraku had passed—not that Kouga had had anything to do with the evil demon's death—and stopped short. Demons marked their mates in multiple ways, some of which were quite vile and distasteful, but Inuyasha had marked her in those days only by scent—_his_ scent _inside_ her. Such a mark was invisible but powerfully clear to other demons with a fair to decent sense of smell, and Kouga fell under that category. When he'd appeared he'd only taken one whiff of the air about the couple and realized the truth—and they never heard from him again…

But the _Hojo_ that Mrs. Higurashi and Sota spoke of wasn't a demon; though Inuyasha hadn't thought that it would make a difference…_did that Hojo do something to her…?_

Mrs. Higurashi spoke again, her voice uncertain, hesitant, "Would you like to see Hojo, ask him what happened?"

The hanyou turned to regard her and a sudden vicious smirk crossed his face. "_Where is he_…"

Both mother and son looked startled, their faces bleached white. Apparently they were rethinking the wisdom of such an option. But once offered it couldn't be revoked—Inuyasha would make sure of that…

"_Where is he!"_ the hanyou demanded, his voice dangerously low and hissing with rage and desperation.

"Inuyasha…" Mrs. Higurashi began stiffly, noticeably nervous, "Kagome and Hojo were merely visiting. She left the house to show him around the shrine grounds and when she didn't come back with him before nightfall…"

"_WHAT!"_

Pale and stiff as a ghost, with Sota cringing beside her, Mrs. Higurashi's voice stuttered and tried to fail, but ruthlessly she went on, "It's n-not what you think at all Inuyasha…" her voice and face hardened with a stern, condescending emotion, "And for you to even _consider_ that possibility shows how low you are! Kagome loves you—_only_ you! That's more than what I could say about _you_ for _many_ years…"

Inuyasha was red in the face, his ears so tight against his skull that it was as if they'd been torn clean off in battle. His amber eyes glittered in rage. _Damn her for bringing up Kikyo…damn her!_ If he stared at Mrs. Higurashi any longer he thought he might lose control of that inner beast within—the stress and fear for his newborn family was just too much for his consciousness to contain and control—so he let his eyes stray away. They landed on Sota's rather large and untrimmed toenails, and the hanyou's thoughts spun as he frantically tried to regain his grip on reality.

There seemed no way to reign his temper in again except a violent release or hours of sulking…But just as he thought that he imagined his wife's face from many years ago, when she'd been nothing but a loyal friend and fellow Shard-gatherer. He remembered the unshed tears as she pledged her allegiance to him—despite the fact that Kikyo had set about to drag him into hell with her for eternity—she had sworn to uphold him no matter what…and come what may she had. He hadn't needed to change to earn her respect or her love, Kagome had always been true for him, always been there.

His gaze traveled slowly back to Mrs. Higurashi's proud, stern features, and Sota's fidgeting nervousness. He let his shoulders sag, his rage flow out of him uselessly. _I'll save it for finding Kagome…_ "You are right…" he sighed slowly, and both Kagome's mother and brother blinked at him in surprise at the admission. "I'm just being a stupid hanyou…" wryly he imagined Kagome's voice cutting through their silence, screaming her infamous word: "Sit!"

"We found Hojo lying unconscious and alone out by the well." Sota admitted, looking toward his mother for approval.

She nodded slowly, pursing her lips in new fear, "We assumed that she had been showing him the well and you happened to come through at that moment and see them talking together and…"

Sota finished for her, "You got jealous."

Inuyasha felt his ears fall backward again, though they'd only been poised forward for a few seconds while he was listening to their explanation. He scowled, realizing that their interpretation would've been exactly right…_but I wouldn't have left a simple human unconscious and just dragged Kagome back through the well with me…_ quietly he asked, "Where is this guy now?"

Mrs. Higurashi gestured toward the end of her hallway, to Kagome's old bedroom. "We couldn't wake him so we put him up for the night…"

Inuyasha started forward immediately, his face grim, but both mother and son stepped to block his progress. The hanyou's amber eyes flashed with irritation. "What's your problem now?" he growled, "I gotta talk to this jackass if I'm going to figure out what happened there and who I need to slaughter for it to get her back…"

Sota and Mrs. Higurashi's stances faltered, they glanced at each other quickly before Kagome's mother sighed heavily and looked back at her hanyou son-in-law. "Inuyasha—be gentle, okay? Hojo and Kagome's interactions were _always_ innocent. Don't take your frustration out on him, _please_."

He rolled his eyes, "I won't now—get out of the way!" he pushed through them, only to have Sota grab onto his arm and pull at him, calling his name. "What, Sota! What do you want now?" he growled, glaring at the youth. He was aware that behind him Mrs. Higurashi was scurrying at the foot of the stairs, digging in a closet and rushing back to him. He wondered once if she might try to press a weapon to his back to drive their point of "being gentle" with Hojo home, but instead a moment later he felt Mrs. Higurashi's hand at his shoulder, pulling him down. He knelt slightly, turning to face her as he did, and found a weight smashing over his ears and his head. He scowled as realization dawned on him and just above where his amber eyes could see it a line of bright red matching his Fire Rat robes wavered. _That damned "baseball" cap she always used to make me wear…_

Frowning he reached up and turned the part that stuck out awkwardly over his forehead—the front of the cap—backward, twisting his ears painfully as he did so. Inuyasha grimaced once and then forced the discomfort away from his outer mind, focusing on his need to discover what had happened to Kagome and Koinu to flood his thoughts and will first and foremost. He turned away from Sota and Mrs. Higurashi and scaled the rest of their stairs in a single leap. Behind him, after he'd landed, he heard the duo coming up after him hurriedly, and, frowning, he didn't wait for them.

Crossing the hallway's length until he reached Kagome's old room, turned the knob and entered, he was assaulted with the still somehow strong scent that his wife had carried about her like perfume when she was still only a teenager. The scent made his gut tighten with old, ancient, unfulfilled longing…and then the far more recent scent of himself and the pup reached him and Inuyasha was forced with a jolt back into the present. The amber eyes landed on a figure covered in one simple blanket, snoozing away…

_A handsome human…_Hojo reminded the hanyou slightly of Miroku, only five hundred years into the future. He bristled wondering if this Hojo possessed a similar personality, though the one that lingered in his memories didn't. Behind him he felt Sota and Mrs. Higurashi pressing close and he growled quietly with annoyance and pushed ahead into the room, kneeling at his wife's former childhood bed.

First he sniffed the sleeping human male once, trying to pick out anything unusual—the lingering scent of dust from inside the well house was all that his nose was able to find. Grumbling to himself the hanyou raised one clawed hand above the human's head—and smirked when he heard Sota and Mrs. Higurashi gasping with shock—and brought it down forcefully, slapping the oblivious sleeper.

Hojo sat straight up, gasping desperately. He stank of sudden terror and fear and Inuyasha cringed at it, almost backing away at the reeking stench. "What! Who is…what…I…Kagome…?" Hojo stammered, looking about the room in bewilderment. When his eyes landed on Inuyasha he appeared confused at first and then, abruptly, a cold clarity reentered his eyes and face. "You're…" he breathed, blinking stupidly, trying to remember the proper names and titles with which to address his infatuation's handsome, quite manly husband.

Inuyasha didn't give him the chance, "Hobo—you in there dumbass?"

Mrs. Higurashi's voice rose in a tone of reprimand, "Inu—" but she cut herself short as Sota elbowed her in the ribs.

Hojo stared hard at the hanyou for a moment, his thoughts swirling and confused and tried again to identify the red robed, fair-haired man in front of him. "You're…Kagome's…"

Once more Inuyasha cut him off, "Yes, that's right, I am." He appeared, for a moment, very pleased with that fact, and then the familiar scowl reappeared. "Where is Kagome, Hobo? Tell me fast and I might just be nice about it…" at his sides where Mrs. Higurashi and Sota could see it, but not Hojo himself, the hanyou's hands flexed, his claws sharp and deadly, a silent promise in them of harm for Hojo if he refused to cooperate.

"I…" he searched his memory, found confusion and blackness and…his eyes widened in horror. "Something came out of your well!" he looked toward Mrs. Higurashi in near panic. He tried to point in the direction of the aforementioned object and his index finger shook the entire way, "It just…he came…Kagome and the baby…"

Inuyasha sprung at him then, unable to contain himself anymore. Amber eyes ablaze with his frantic terror and rage once again, the hanyou grabbed the worthless Hojo by the collar of his shirt and pulled his face close, allowing him to take in the other man's scents very accurately—as well as to simply intimidate him. "What happened to _them?"_ he hissed, dangerously.

"I…" Hojo's eyes started to tear and he began shaking in horror and fear. Feebly his hands tried to pry lose Inuyasha's grip and failed. "I don't…" a tear or two slid down his cheeks as the memories of the attack hit him, the blackness, the pain, the helplessness all returned to him. Kagome hovering over the ground, her body held rigid, the beast's evil eyes gleaming as Inuyasha's own did now, but unlike Kagome's husband's amber orbs, the _thing's_ eyes had shone with hatred and a sadistic hunger…_the light inside a murderer's eyes…_

"God no!" Hojo bawled, shaking, and pawed at Inuyasha's hands, at his face…his fingers closed over the baseball cap and pulled. The thing gave way; fell toward the floor. Inuyasha's white dog-ears sprung up merrily, released from their red prison. Hojo was suddenly mute with the mixture of epiphany and terror. _Kagome was telling the truth about everything—and someone captured her from that other side…_

"This can't be happening!" he whispered to himself, his mind still reeling, trying to deny the things that were moving atop Inuyasha's head, swiveling back at forth with irritation. The claws that were tearing through the fabric of his shirt, the amber eyes that reminded him of his cat's eyes, bright gold and shining in a clearly inhuman way…

Inuyasha let loose a sharp, disgusted growl and tossed Hojo back onto the bed. He snorted and rose to his feet, looking at Sota and Mrs. Higurashi. His stomach was tight with worry for his wife and child but he refused to show her family that weakness. Only confidence mattered at this time. He nodded slowly at them. "I've heard all I need to hear from this loser." He sneered.

"Do you know what happened, Inuyasha?" Sota whispered, a mixture of apprehension and awe in his voice.

"No." Inuyasha scowled, "But I can guess—and I'm going to go through the well and find out."

On the bed Hojo mumbled the hanyou's name like a madman: "Inuyasha! Yes, that's it, Inuyasha! That's who she said she'd married…that was the boy she introduced me to so long ago."

Inuyasha threw his mate's former suitor a quick smirk, "No wonder Kagome didn't like you…"

_

* * *

_

_If she wakes up to feed the pup it'll be a miracle._ Shimofuri thought to himself with a frown as he tried to cuddle and comfort the hungry baby for the thousandth time.

He sat on the floor of the wide, spacious guest room of his mother's palace. The walls and shoji screens of the room were decorated in grayish-purple reeds with the occasional intrusion of gold and bright orange koi fish. It was a spring pond theme, and gorgeous just as everything else in his mother's palace was, but at the moment Shimofuri hated the room. He hated it not for its beauty—but because it was smaller than many of the other rooms. It echoed worse than the caves that he had spent the night in while once hunting in his true form with his father—Haiseishoku—in the wilds of his mother's territory. _That_ was saying a lot for it…and he wished that he could go deaf for just that night…just until a wet nurse could be found to end the pup's hunger.

_Why was it that I decided to take care of Inuyasha's pup?_ He wondered, bitterly, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears from the baby's continual crying.

Cooing and cuddling had stopped working ages ago on the child. Since arriving at the palace the child had refused to be placated. The little white ears had drooped and disappeared pathetically as he screamed, the tears had ceased because he'd shed so many, the eyes were squished tightly shut endlessly, and the pup's face glowed a bright red. He pitied the child but there was nothing he could do…_his mother is unconscious…_and with the pup screaming so much the inuyoukai had gotten a shot of the baby's still toothless gums. _Nothing but milk will do for him…_

Shimofuri looked up from the screaming baby in his arms and toward the futon on the other side of the room where, swaddled in bright white furs, a human form lay, unmoving. Inuyasha's human mate was almost as surrounded by myths and legends as the hanyou was but at the moment he thought she smelled and looked just as frail as any human woman might…but looks could very well be deceiving…_what other choice do I have?_

With a sigh, which was impossible to hear above the baby's screams, the young inuyoukai rose to his feet and walked carefully across the room. The child's screams moved with him, the echoes changing and flowing about the room as he went, like ripples in a pond. He knelt at the futon's side and leaned over the unconscious woman, peering into her pallid, utterly still face…_like one of the dead_…and he saw her blink. _By the gods!_ He almost grinned but quickly restrained it to move away from her instead, bowing low to her when the young mother turned her head slowly to stare at him. He held the baby pressed tightly to his chest, protecting it as if it were his own and not his distant, hanyou cousin's.

"My lady," he murmured, formally, his tone without emotion.

The human woman's eyes blinked once, twice, taking him in. Then her gaze changed and he realized that she was thinking of her child and his ceaseless crying…Shimofuri rose and moved to her side again, extending the pup out to her in his arms. "I have watched over him." He assured her, gently.

She started to sit up, but paused half way there, breathing raggedly, her eyes closed. Beneath their lids Shimofuri saw her eyeballs seeming to spin, flickering wildly…_is she dizzy?_

"My lady…?" he whispered, trying to call her back to the real world. It worked—her eyes shot open and locked onto him again and she pushed herself the rest of the way up. Her arms reached out for her pup and Shimofuri handed the screaming infant over without hesitation.

The moment the child scented his mother's presence—and no doubt her milk—he quieted, whimpering hungrily instead. The tiny little clawed hands dug at his mother's torn white jacket knowingly. But the mother did nothing to relieve the child of his hunger…instead she looked up at the young Inuyoukai, her dark gaze confused and troubled…and suddenly Shimofuri understood, and was immediately embarrassed.

Quickly he turned round, letting her see only his back. This had two reasons, the first was to give her what he'd realized she wanted: privacy to nurse the pup. The second was to hide his abrupt blush. Such a thing was quite unbecoming of a strong, proud inuyoukai heir. He refused to utter an apology to the woman—that would reveal his embarrassment in the matter for certain! He couldn't allow that. His thoughts bristled with self-loathing for several seconds as he scolded himself for not immediately sensing the woman's need. Of _course_ she wouldn't want to nurse the child with him around! Shimofuri had, he supposed, forgotten that she wasn't apart of the clan. His mother had unabashedly nursed Tsukiyume whenever and wherever either of them pleased. There wasn't any shame or taboo associated with it to the inuyoukai—but this woman was not an inuyoukai and she wasn't even part of the clan technically…shifting uncomfortably Shimofuri forced his thoughts to stray to something else, burying the topic as well as his embarrassment.

When he heard the pup's whimpering cease he knew, with a huge surge of relief, that Inuyasha's human mate had finally begun nursing the child. He remained stoically still, not moving to look back at her, for fear that she would stop if he disturbed her in any way, but the silence lengthened and made him jumpy inside. This situation—with his mother baiting their mysterious and utterly powerful hanyou cousin—made him distinctly unhappy and uncomfortable. He wanted to speak to the woman, for when she had met his gaze before he'd seen the silent questions in her eyes, but feeding her pup came first…

Just as he was about to raise his own voice to begin speaking to her, the woman broke the terrible weight of the silence between them: "Where…are we? Who are you?" her voice was weak and hoarse with its lack of use. Shimofuri tried to scent her to take in her mood—but he could smell nothing except the sweet tang of milk.

"My lady," he began formally, his back still to her, his voice careful and controlled and quiet, "You and your child are in the palace of the presiding inuyoukai of the Middle lands, Lady Taikokajin. I am the heir to that position, my name is Shimofuri, but you may address me as shishi-sama, if you wish." His formality with the woman was sure to make her uncomfortable, he knew, but although he didn't much like it himself he knew that his mother would disapprove if she found that the human woman was calling him by his common name and not one of high respect and authority. Uncertainly he held his back rigid and straight, waiting to see if there was more the woman wanted to know.

"Shishi-sama…?" she whispered behind him, confused it seemed, "Okay…" her tone was one of a reluctant acceptance, he heard her sigh. "I assume that you know who I am, but…am I a prisoner here, shishi-sama?"

Shimofuri frowned, unable to stop himself from making the expression, though he tried, and glad suddenly that he had his back to her still. He let the silence drag onward, searching himself for the answer. _Should I tell her the truth? _

In this new quiet Shimofuri heard the baby's continual squirming and kneading of his mother while he nursed, as well as the slightly lethargic breathing of the woman. The scent of milk swamped his senses still and he resisted the urge to shake his head in an attempt to clear it—the mother might see that as an answer to her question and he didn't want that.

He allowed himself a deep breath before he answered, "In truth, my lady, I do not know your name, but I _do_ know who you are. And you are free to do as you will here—but I cannot allow you to leave. You will be treated as a guest in this palace, I shall make every effort to assure that you are comfortable…" he stopped himself as he realized that he was about to accidentally announce to her, 'for as long as you are alive.' Had his brains turned to mush! Shimofuri almost growled to himself and his fists, lying peacefully in his lap until this moment, curled into angry balls. _If she dies Inuyasha will likely kill us all…Mother why must you be so blind!_ But then he too remembered his half-sister and he bowed his head, closing his eyes.

The mother sighed behind him, "Thank you, I guess…" she sounded nervous, and after a moment he heard her quietly offer her name to him, "My name is Kagome…"

Though he still had his back to her he bowed, knowing she could see it, "Lady Kagome." He murmured solemnly, "May I ask the name of your child?"

"Oh—we named him Koinu…"

_A name of great affection…_he could guess that the pup was very important to both Inuyasha and his human mate…he felt a strange, cold darkness inside himself when he considered the way his mother had looked at the child the night he had spoken to her. Her eyes had glowed with a tiny hint of something that frightened Shimofuri more than Garou's dark magic…_she suggested that **I** could adopt the pup—but I don't think in her heart she was thinking of me taking the pup…_

She'd been thinking of the pup as her own…

Shimofuri suppressed a shudder and realized that he needed to escape the room. Clearing his throat he asked, "Lady Kagome?"

"Yes?" the answer was quiet and tired.

"Are you hungry? Would you like food or water?"

There was a pause—all the answer that Shimofuri needed. He rose to his feet and walked away from her quietly, "I will fetch you sustenance." He told her mechanically when he reached the door and slid it open, stepping out into the hall. As he padded, nearly silent, away from the guest room on his bare feet, passing servants that bowed low to him as they went, Shimofuri was tense and deeply disturbed at heart. _This will come to be our doom Mother, _he whispered at her inside his mind, though he knew she couldn't possibly hear him and even if she could've she wouldn't have listened, _Inuyasha will destroy us if Garou doesn't…I can feel it._

* * *

_Endnote: _WOWEES! This story is WAY over the 200th reviewer now! WOW! Kay: the 200th Reviewer was The Moonless Night! (tosses cookies at everyone and gives a massive award out to The Moonless Night (winks) And you thought that you weren't going to be the 200th! HA!) 

A MONSTER THANK YOU TO ALL REVIEWERS! **_FYI IY is mine, adamile, The Moonless Night_**(200 reviews! YAYS!), _**sarah, Taigo, Yami Chikara, SerenaClearwater, TheDarkAngel101**_(sorry this one's just as long (sheepish grin)), _**angelpup,kirarakitty, nekoyasha213, heather, cool-chick-rae, Sesshomaru13, Lady Kjerston of the Western, Inuadmirer, Ryine Kuriso To'oname, Crolynx**_(You shocked me dropping the f-bomb in your review, I thought I was going to be screamed at! I'm going to have to read the author you suggested, I will endeavor to do so in the very near future...),_**Cindy**_(Interesting point...and THANK YOU! I hope I can live up to your expectations! (sheepish smiles)), _**inuyasha'sbabe07 , Simonkal of Inyu**_ (Did I mention I LOVE you guys? I giggled proudly when I read your review (giggles again) THANK YOU!), _**inuyasha-is-mine7630, Tiamath**_(WOW! I didn't see that one coming! Hehehe...he IS evil but his evil-ness stems from a fear of more than just death but pure extinction...can we really blame him? eh...probably yes b/c we love IY and Kagome and Koinu so much...(grins)), _**fanfiction1**_(Yes, I think you got that all basically right, and yes, Inu probably would've gone anyway, but Taiko needs the leverage of having Kagome and Koinu within her power/protection to make sure that Garou doesn't get them, as well as to be kinda a shield against Inu's wrath, like "Don't wind-scar my butt becuase I have your wife and child..." that sort of thing...), _**Rinelwin**_ (I didn't really do anything to Koinu (snickers)and no, Shimo-chan isn't in love with Kagome, he's probably too young to feel that way anyway, he might be by demon standards an adolescent...)

I think that's everyone...sorry I id everything in bulk...I have homework I need to do and such...(sighs) but at least I got to updating finally! (whimpers) Can you all forgive me for being so late? (sniffles)...


	16. Collateral

**Disc:** Okay, nope...

**A/N:**I am SOOO unbelievably busy. I've been up till midnight each night doing homework...(growls) I'm already up too late now working on this chapter...but it's been TOO long since the last posting...so I hope this is enough for you guys...I elaborate more on Taikokajin and Shimofuri. That may or may not matter to you...I liked writing this chapter, I hope you guys like reading it, I didn't know I could get into such depth with these characters...Taikokajin writes herself in a way I never intended and Shimofuri gets better and better...I hope you guys like them...and...**_Elizabeth Hemingway_** is reviewer 250! YAYS! (throws cookies and hands out strawberry dacquiris...) YAYS! Thanks guys...I'm pretty sure there was a rather overwhelming response to last chapter...for that I THANK YOU ALL! (bows low to her readers and reviewers) I apologize for my lateness...PLEASE FORGIVE ME! But now, on with the story...

**

* * *

Collateral**

The servant burst into the room with a harried, panicked expression, making Shimofuri scowl, though he tried to suppress and weaken the frank show of emotion. Seeing the look on his face, the servant, dressed in a very simple, very short kimono, fell to her knees and knelt into an exceptionally low bow. "I am very grieved to disturb you so, Shishi-sama…" the servant woman looked up once, her deep brown eyes shining with worry, surely wondering if she would be punished.

Shimofuri made a noncommittal gesture, waving one slender hand, "This Shimofuri excuses you." He assured her absently, "Relay your news…" there had to be news for her to have stumbled so foolishly into his chambers. She was lucky she had caught him with all of his robes still on. It was late and the young heir was fatigued after his long hours up with the mortal mate of his hanyou cousin's, as well as the screaming baby…

The servant began speaking her lips and voice trembled, "Shishi-sama," she called him by his high title, as all servants and "lower" subordinates were required to, "The Lady Taikokajin orders your presence with her in the formal court…"

He frowned, this time letting the expression mature and linger over his features in it entirety. _There's something terribly wrong…_he realized. His mother wouldn't call him into the court so late—she knew that he was sleeping after his journeys and exploits on her behalf. In fact he wasn't even sure why she herself was up and in the court…that was where she generally conducted official ambassadorial business—who would come for a court appearance with her at such a late time? _If they came unannounced and threatening war…**that** would be enough to make her call upon me at this time or any time…_his mind cleared and he lowered his head, closing his blue-gray eyes wearily. _Yes Mother, you have undone us already, haven't you?_

The servant, apparently ready to flee at the earliest opportunity, had risen to her feet, offered a smaller, secondary bow, and was turning to leave, sliding his chamber's door shut behind her—but Shimofuri called her back with a short, barking sound. The young woman jumped to attention and leapt through the remaining very narrow space between door and the wall. She bowed again, mumbling words of absent honor and apology hurriedly and just under her breath. "What does Shishi-sama wish of this lowly one?"

"_I _wish to know," he began, sternly, breaking the stiff frostiness between them, "if my hanyou cousin by the name of Inuyasha—the second born son of Inutaisho—has arrived to speak with the Lady Taikokajin. Is my guess correct?"

The servant's brown eyes glittered with a strange mixture of emotions. "The guest _is_ an inuhanyou, shishi-sama…" she whispered, and, timidly, she blinked and lowered her eyes once more, carefully avoiding his powerful, intense gray gaze, "He has the silvered hair of the Inutaisho line with the golden eyes as well…" her face flickered, apparently with something close to a tense amusement, "And white ears atop his head…but I know not his name."

Shimofuri cleared his face of expression. "Thank you—you may go." He watched her hop to her feet and dash once more through the narrow space of the door before shutting it again and hurrying away down the hall.

Alone, the young inuyoukai sighed, contemplating his mother's summoning. _To go or not to go…_it mattered not in the end, he supposed. Inuyasha would surely smell him out no matter what happened and kill him for his perceived crimes. Would the death be any less painful or somehow more compassionate if he failed to show his face to the legendary inuhanyou this night? Probably not considering how much he suspected his distant cousin felt about his young family—the mortal woman and the adorable pup. Any minute now and Shimofuri expected that there would be a horrendous blast through his mother's palace and the dog demon clan—his side of it anyway—would feel the legendary wrath of the Tetsuseiga, the Fang of Inutaisho.

_Perhaps if I do go I can lessen the hanyou's anger or control my mother…_though he doubted such a thought gloomily, Shimofuri moved to his closet and slid open the doors, picking through his most formal kimonos carefully. In the end he chose a thick fabric kimono, which was white with embroidered ripples of water—a gray ocean—on it. The obi he chose was bright yellow with black scrawling kanji that named him as the heir of Lady Taikokajin of the dog demon clan named Shimofuri. His father's name—Haiseishoku—was also scrawled over the thing, though he knew that his mother scowled unabashedly whenever she saw it…Haiseishoku had died years ago when Shimofuri was young, but even before that Taikokajin and he had gone their separate ways, despising one another. They'd come together only to produce him—though neither liked the other they both adored him and Shimofuri had been spoiled between them until Haiseishoku had passed on…

The kimono he had chosen was, in fact, one his father had had made for him. Somewhere, in Haiseishoku's family palace, an identical, although slightly broader and thicker kimono was stored, destined never to be worn beside its mate. The sadness ran through Shimofuri again but he refused to fall prey to it. With a stern face he summoned a servant to fasten and tie his obi in as ornate a style as a male could possess, and then left his chamber with his nose in the air proudly. _I will serve you faithfully, Mother, though by no means will I remain quiet about my disagreements with your foolishness._

He walked beside the servant until they reached the palace's meeting hall, the main court, where Lady Taikokajin entertained dignitaries and other members of the clan. Wars had been settled—as we as begun—in that wide, dark room. As Shimofuri entered it he immediately scented the demonic heritage of the mortal woman's pup within his mother's current guest. When his eyes landed on the guest he saw the dirtied, torn and wrinkled old red Fire Rat robes, the long silvered hair, the bright, shifting gold eyes dark with rage, and the quite mobile little white dog ears perched atop the head, Shimofuri knew that this was the legendary hanyou Inuyasha—and he was _so_ young! For a moment Shimofuri had to fight his instinct to stare in wonder at his distant cousin.

"Shimofuri." The soft yet powerful voice of his mother purred from nearby, and the young inuyoukai turned his attention swiftly to his mother's pink gaze. Taikokajin wore a pearly white kimono; the material shimmered and gleamed in the flickering light of the palace's lamps. Bright orange-red koi goldfish leapt in bright baby blue ponds across the fabric's sheen. Her obi was black and bore no kanji to proclaim her heritage—which somehow bore her into higher standing. It elevated her above her son, who needed to announce himself to Inuyasha while Lady Taikokajin of course, did not. With a quick glance at Inuyasha, Shimofuri saw that his cousin didn't wear the formal kimono but rather a haori built for business—dirt, blood and grit—and hakama pants as well that were cuffed tightly to his ankles to allow for swift movement.

Inuyasha didn't present himself like an ambassador, or as a guest, or as a person of nobility. Rather, Shimofuri realized with restrained foreboding, his hanyou cousin presented a warrior's front…in fact his gray eyes easily caught sight of the hanyou's legendary sword at his side…

"Shimofuri." His mother's voice caught him again and this time he bowed, low, from the waist up, first in the direction of his ruler and mother, then his distant cousin. He watched Inuyasha's expression while making the formal bows, but the hanyou's face remained full of some dark, deceptively quiet disgust and anger. Shimofuri tried to scent the hanyou and felt a larger shiver of unease pass through him as he realized that already Inuyasha had learned to restrain his scent from giving him away to the dog demons' noses.

"Inuyasha." Taikokajin murmured, drawing the hanyou's golden eyes away. The eyes glowed with a deeper, darker, _intensely_ passionate emotion like rage or fury… "This is Shimofuri—my son." The amber orbs didn't leave Taikokajin, though Shimofuri bowed once more. The hanyou had little interest in her relatives apparently.

"You bitch…" he muttered, his voice a low rasping whisper. It was not a threatening sound, it was a _promise_ of violence, "Where are Kagome and Koinu…"

As he took his spot next to his mother's side Shimofuri avoided the hanyou's amber gaze and remained silent. His face stayed cool and expressionless, though his mind was swirling frantically. _Why can't he scent his pup and mate here? Surely that's how he got here…?_

Taikokajin made a soft sound, clearing her throat gently, "Inuyasha-_ituko._" She nodded her head to him in a formal acknowledgement, "Why such anger? No harm has come to your mate or your pup." She offered him a small smile and gestured with one hand at Shimofuri at her side, "My son saved them both from Garou…"

The hanyou scowled, his ears flicked backward, pressing hard against his head, the amber eyes felt like a ton of burning hot bricks on Shimofuri, "What do you want from me damn it!" he jumped to his feet, hands curling into fists until Shimofuri scented blood escaping from the hanyou. "I _know_ that you have Kagome and Koinu—either _fucking_ lead me to them and let us all go or to hell with the both of your asses!" his hands flew to the hilt of his sword and Shimofuri opened his mouth to give Inuyasha exactly what he wanted, no matter what his mother had to say about it—but Taikokajin made her move first.

Getting gracefully to her feet the she-demon bowed deeply, her silvered hair slipped over her shoulders and hung down before her, shrouding her face. "Please, Inuyasha-_ituko…_" she began, her tone placating, but the hanyou would have none of her words.

The hanyou moved forward threateningly, his hand tightened over Tetsuseiga's Hilt and ripped the sword out of its sheath with the grate of metal on metal. "You're both _dead!"_ he snarled, handling the thin, chipped sword with both hands, leveling it at them with a growling sneer at them both.

Taikokajin stared back at Inuyasha and suddenly smirked. "You stupid brute…" she laughed—_laughed—_at the hanyou, and Shimofuri glanced quickly at her with wide eyes, terrified. _Have you lost your mind Mother!_

Then, to Shimofuri's shock, Inuyasha blinked and his expression changed, the features blurring and warping as he frowned thickly. For several moments Shimofuri was the only one left out of the secret that was transpiring between his mother and distant half-demon cousin. Only when he noticed that Inuyasha had lowered the sword—which was still pathetically thin, chipped, and utterly unimpressive—did the realization hit the gray-eyed inuyoukai like a jolt of electricity. He looked to his cousin with a sudden, pitying gaze, and when he inhaled sharply, taking in the hanyou's scent carefully, he noticed what his mother had from the moment that Inuyasha had entered her palace.

_He's losing his demonic powers…_

Outside the moon was rising—but it was shadowed and sheltered from the refracting sunlight that normally colored it so brilliantly. And just as the eerie light had shifted and vanished from the surface of the moon, so had the mysterious power that surged through Inuyasha's veins. It didn't vanish, merely became dormant…

Knowing that this was a most inopportune of nights in which to battle hadn't swayed Inuyasha's protective and loyal nature. His desperate need to find and protect his mate as well as his very young offspring, had been enough to delay his transformation—but not for long. As the moon rose higher over the earth his demonic blood grew more and more sluggish. His senses had all slipped away by the time he'd found Taikokajin's castle. As he sat and waited for her and her son to enter the room, Inuyasha hadn't been able to scent _anything._ It was as if he'd been blinded. Month after month the hanyou rediscovered the torture that humans suffered through, their blindness, their ignorant senses…but he had goaded his inner demon-self along with his memories of his mate and son. It had been enough to make his appearance remain normal thus far—but not his senses or his strength…

"Guards!" Taikokajin suddenly yelled while Inuyasha was still confused and fumbling with his sword, "Restrain this hanyou!"

Footsteps echoed through the halls, and crashing through the sliding doors came a dozen armored men, their daggers and swords drawn, faces grim and tight with the anticipation of violence. Shimofuri watched it happen in shock, dumb and mute to stop it…his grayish-blue eyes slid to his mother's form, tall, erect, proud…and _cruel…_the young inuyoukai lord looked toward the red-robed hanyou—who shared many of the same family features as Taikokajin did!—and something inside him seemed to move or tighten, and he felt as if he might vomit. _What have I allowed to happen?_

The guards raced at Inuyasha, who appeared to have lost his wits…that is, until the first of the men reached him—then the hanyou sprung into action. Whirling on the man he slashed him with his still clawed hands, screeching, "Iron Reaver!" as blood spurted into the air, assaulting the inuyoukai mother and son's noses. Another man gripped Inuyasha, trying to slash the hanyou with a small rapier-like sword, but the half-demon was faster. Twisting round and underneath the other man's grip, kicking a third man away with one foot as he went, Inuyasha rammed his skinny, chipped un-transformed Tetsuseiga through the guard's body. He fell away, clutching at the wound as blood spilled out onto the otherwise clean and polished wooden floors.

Shimofuri looked to his mother, his lips pursed, eyes narrowed. _Stop this…_he willed her silently, but she did nothing of the kind, just watched, stiff as a rod. Her pink gaze was locked on the hanyou's movements in something akin to fascination, and her pearly, shiny kimono made her like a goddess, a slice of perfection on the earth…but what she was doing was madness!

Inuyasha, free of the guards for a second—which was all he needed really—leapt high into the air, his thin Tetsuseiga aimed fatally at Taikokajin's chest where her heart beat under the ribs without effort or worry. The hanyou screamed his rage out as he flew through the space that separated him from the inuyoukai woman…

"_Mother!"_ Shimofuri managed to call, leaping to his feet, reaching for the small knife he had stored inside his obi, but even as he moved as fast as he could he knew it was too late…

Taikokajin ducked and tumbled, without any effort seemingly, avoiding the hanyou's crazed, maddened attack. When she rose to her feet again she was on the other side of the room, surrounded by three of her guards, her own sword drawn. Shimofuri knew the blade well enough, it was from his mother's father, the now deceased, but former great lord of the Middle Lands, called Koshoshiro. A long, curvaceous, slender blade, it was designed to leave deep gashes that bled their victims to death. Taikokajin didn't employ strength so much as she did speed and quick, clever thinking, thus her father's sword had served her well over the years—though Shimofuri had only rarely seen her using it. Now he stared at it as the blade shimmered, held high in the air by his mother's strong right hand and arm.

Inuyasha landed in a heap, his bare feet skidding over the smooth floor. The only thing that kept him from smacking into the screens of the wall where Taikokajin had only moments ago been sitting, was the hanyou's quick work with the chipped Tetsuseiga. He slammed it into the floorboards, growling as his feet slipped out from underneath him. He used the sword as a crutch to help himself up—Shimofuri noticed that his cousin was noticeably slower than only moments before. Had he hurt himself in the fall, or was it…?

The answer came to all of them right before their eyes. Shaking, Inuyasha looked up at them as he regained his footing, his golden eyes gleaming at them with a deadly glint—and then they dulled and darkened. It wasn't emotion that tinted the rich amber coloration, but the passage of the nearly invisible moon through the sky. Even as he bore his teeth at the others savagely, Inuyasha's fangs seemed to waver and then suddenly disappear altogether. The clawed hands gripping his sword's hilt shrunk and shriveled. The ears stop his head, turned backward with rage, withered, rounded, and began migrating downward. Spurts of black fought with the hanyou's silvered hair…and suddenly Shimofuri was staring not at an inuhanyou that clearly belonged inside his own clan, even within his own family—but at a human, a young mortal man.

"Revealed at last Inuyasha!" Taikokajin grinned savagely—making even her own son blink at her in muddled confusion and surprise—as she lifted the blade higher still, her body seeming to twist with the agility of a feline. "Do you still wish to fight me?" she taunted, her pink eyes glimmering.

Inuyasha's glare was as fierce as it had been before his transformation, but no fangs glittered beneath his lips to send his emotions and intentions home to the inuyoukais. "You _bitch!"_ he spluttered, and ripped Tetsuseiga from out of the floorboards, leveling it at her. "You can't go any lower than stealing someone's _mate_ and _baby pup…_" he snarled, "If your fight is with me then you'd damn well better fight _me_, don't bring my _family_ into this!"

The guards around Taikokajin bristled and started to step forward; ready to defend their mistress—but the inuyoukai woman halted their progress with a single barked word, "Halt!" they obeyed, looking toward her obediently but with noticeable confusion. Despite the fact that Inuyasha had already easily killed several of their comrades—or perhaps that encouraged their willingness to return the favor—they were eager to throw themselves in harm's way.

Taikokajin lowered her slender blade, though she didn't sheath it. Her pink eyes looked toward Shimofuri and a small smile formed on her lips. "I don't wish to fight you, Inuyasha-_ituko—"_

"Stop calling me your _fucking_ cousin—bitch!" the hanyou shouted, his human eyes narrowing at her in fury, Tetsuseiga sent a small pulse through the room, punctuating his words. The guards and both inuyoukai froze at it. "It's fucking insulting to think I'm related to _you._"

At his outburst Taikokajin looked significantly annoyed, but she didn't dispute him. Her eyes flicked once to Shimofuri briefly before she continued, "I should think you'd be grateful that my son rescued your mate and pup from the claws of Garou." She snorted, "Where were you? If my son had not been following Garou…" she pinned the suddenly shaking hanyou-turned-human with a calculated glance, "I _shudder_ to imagine what would've happened to them…" she narrowed her eyes at Inuyasha as his grip on Tetsuseiga faded—the sword wobbled a bit in his grasp.

She shook her head, in something close to disgust, "If _I _were your mate I'd leave you, Inuyasha, for showing such cruelty to the ones that rescued me while _you_ weren't around to _protect_ me…" the sword dropped to the ground with a dull thunk-like sound, Inuyasha's expression was one of shock and horror abruptly.

Watching the scene Shimofuri felt his fists curl into balls of outrage. His mother was committing a slight crime against all inuyoukai males everywhere and he _knew_ that she knew it. Inuyasha was so blinded by his _biological need_ to protect his family that when she accused him of having failed that mission the hanyou was left defenseless and blinded to her trickery. It was as good as casting a spell on their poor legendary cousin—and it made Shimofuri's blood boil. That _his_ mother could be so manipulative, so dishonest, made him sick inside. She was sinking so incredibly low that she was using the hanyou's own dog demon biological heritage against him. He wondered, silently; if one day when _he_ ruled the Middle Lands in her stead and was happily mated with offspring of his own, would Taikokajin use these sorts of tricks on him too?

When Shimofuri's gaze planted itself on Inuyasha's sagging, despaired form, he didn't see the black-haired, blue-eyed human form of his cousin's hanyou self—he saw his own blue-black hair and his own gray-blue eyes. When he looked to his mother's triumphant pink irises, he felt an inner pain and turmoil that threatened to make him scream. He had always wondered why his parents had chosen to separate after his birth so quickly. Most youkai that needed to make heirs for an important position chose to carry on as mates—for both pleasure (emotions wasn't _really_ needed in an heir-producing relationship, only decent sex…) _and_ for the added bonus of more offspring, more potential heirs. Taikokajin, for instance, had been one of many pups born to Shimofuri's grandfather, Koshoshiro. Unless one mate died—as was the case in Sesshomaru's line where he was Inutaisho's only heir—there were usually multiple pups. Now, seeing his mother as if for the first time, Shimofuri felt a coldness growing within him. _Haiseishoku—Father—I see now why you left the Lady of the Middle Lands behind…_

When Taikokajin spoke again it was to quietly send the guards away and meet her son's accusing glare with annoyance. "Shimofuri—_chakunan—_" she barked, signaling him to join her.

Burying his outrage the young inuyoukai moved serenely across the room, forcing himself to ignore the overwhelming iron tang of human blood in the air as he stepped over the felled bodies of at least four guards. In a few moments he stood beside his mother, though he bristled at it, and he knew Taikokajin could sense it. She would put him in his place later he was sure…but for now he had to watch her manipulate the unfortunate Inuyasha further, all the while he wondered at his mother's _real_ intentions. _Not only do you want Inuyasha to slay Garou for you and retrieve Tsukiyume, you also crave the thought of keeping from him what is his by all rights in both human, demon, and the laws of nature Herself. The mortal woman doesn't wish to serve you, Mother, and the pup…the child is Inuyasha's own blood!_

"Inuyasha…" Taikokajin called, softly, and the now human half-demon jerked his gaze up at her, a mixture of irritation and despair lingering in his eyes.

"What is it bitch?" he growled, the sword lifted from the ground again. "Where are you keeping Kagome and Koinu? Tell me or I'll have to kill you…"

"While you're human?" Taikokajin snorted and rolled her pink eyes, unimpressed, "I should think not! I'm afraid that you're just going to have to do what I say…and worry not for your mate or your pup—I shall see to it that they are treated as guests of honor within my palace. Garou shan't get near them—nor anyone else that may pose a threat to them."

Inuyasha scowled at her, unbelievingly, "If that's true, bitch, then how did this Garou thing get a hold of your daughter?"

Taikokajin and Shimofuri both stiffened against that verbal challenge. Though her son looked away, Taikokajin didn't. Her gaze locked firmly with the rebellious hanyou's. "Tsuki—" she bit her tongue and paused, taking a deep breath before speaking again, "My daughter was visiting her human father at the time…" she couldn't stop her voice from shaking as she finished the sentence, "…his grave…"

The emotion in her words left Inuyasha disarmed and unable to doubt her words. Tetsuseiga shifted into a far less menacing position as he regarded the inuyoukai couple before him. For the first time his eyes slid to Shimofuri, who was standing beside his mother silently, his eyes cold and bland as he stared at the space between his mother and the hanyou, deep in thought.

"What is your bloody name again?" he frowned at Taikokajin's son, his tone irritated.

The gray-blue gaze jerked upward, met Inuyasha's carefully. "Shimofuri." He answered, lips pursed.

"Shimofuri?" his mother murmured his name gently beside him, "You may leave us now…" she didn't like it when Inuyasha turned his attention to her own flesh and blood, Shimofuri thought wryly. Without expression he bowed lightly to both his mother and Inuyasha, and started to leave quietly. Already behind him he heard Taikokajin speaking, announcing what she wanted Inuyasha to do for her…

"If you can find Garou and slay him, and recover my daughter, Inuyasha, I would gladly release your mate and your pup from my protective custody…"

Inuyasha snorted, "Feh! You bitch! As if I was _fucking stupid enough_ to trust your miserable lying ass, I'll…" though the hanyou wasn't finished, Shimofuri had abruptly turned round and was bowing low to Inuyasha, acting out on a whim that he knew would help both of them.

"Inuyasha-_ituko_," he murmured quietly, giving his mother a careful glare once to make sure she understood that what he was about to do was planned at least partly out of a desire to anger her. For a brief moment he saw a thrill of alarm shoot through her, thought he could almost scent it…and then he looked away, pinning Inuyasha with his gaze instead. "I am the heir to these lands…_the only heir…_if you would do this thing that my mother asks of you, I would travel beside you as a servant…and if my mother should refuse to return your mate and pup, or should any harm come to either of them," he straightened from his bow and faced his cousin proudly, noble and true, "Then you shall have my life in atonement, my life and thus the future of the Middle Lands as well…"

Taikokajin's pink eyes were wide with horror. "Shimofuri!" she hissed suddenly, her face was as pale as the snow on the highest mountains. "_What do you think you're doing!"_

Blandly he answered, "I am making things fair, Mother, I am helping you get Tsukiyume returned safely…she is _my_ sister as well as _your_ child."

Their exchange drew the suddenly keen and avid interest of Inuyasha's human eyes.

Still the pink-eyed inuyoukai woman seemed somewhere between wild fear and outrage. "You are my _heir!"_ she was whispering her words now; her voice had failed her. The sweet, ruler's diplomatic tone was banished in her mortified shock. "I _cannot_ let you go…" here she narrowed her eyes at him, silently letting him know that she understood that his actions were some form of rebellion. Could she fathom that he was doing this not only for their cousin's sake, but also for all males everywhere? Taikokajin had played unfairly, cheated. Shimofuri wasn't going to let her get away with it without a few battle wounds…

"Look bitch—you let your _daughter_ go to wherever the hell her human father's grave is, right?" Inuyasha's voice rose now, as he fixed Taikokajin with a suspicious glance.

The inuyoukai woman flinched at his words and she closed her eyes. Her breathing was just slightly erratic, Shimofuri could see and scent—she was in _great_ distress. Inuyasha's comment had been cutting and accurate. The guilt and worry and shame his mother felt for the loss of one child was enough—but the thought of _both_ her pups being possibly lost…? It was almost more than a mother could handle—and almost enough to make Shimofuri relinquish his offer, _almost._

"Besides," Inuyasha growled as Taikokajin opened her pink eyes again and leveled her gaze to meet the hanyou's, "I think that Shimo-kun here is old enough and strong enough to keep up with me…" he smirked as Shimofuri scowled momentarily over the none-too subtle jab. "If…" Inuyasha paused a moment and bit his lip, suddenly a little uncomfortable, "_If_ you let me see Kagome and Koinu before I go—and as long as your little Shimo-kun comes with me as collateral," he stared frankly at Taikokajin, his eyes glittering hard, "Then I'll do what you ask…" he thrust a human hand out toward her, "We got a deal, bitch?"

Taikokajin still seemed stricken, and she was slow to react. With a lingering look of something close to despair thrown between Shimofuri and Inuyasha, she stuck out one lender but thoroughly clawed hand out to her distant cousin. "We have a deal—_ituko…_" their hands clasped together and the inuyoukai woman's pink gaze grew firm and stern on the hanyou, her grip on his hand became deathly tight, "Listen now Inuyasha, if you fail to return my pups to me safely…" her eyes narrowed cruelly, hatefully, "I'll _kill_ your mate and that pup—is that clear…?"

Inuyasha ripped his hand from hers and stepped backward, Tetsuseiga, although not transformed still, readied again. "If you harm _one_ hair on either of their heads _bitch_ I'll—"

Shimofuri stepped between them and, bowing, directed Inuyasha's attention toward the door, "I shall lead you to your mate and pup…"

Still glaring at Taikokajin, who returned the heated gaze, Inuyasha snorted, "It's about damn time!"

* * *

As Inuyasha crossed the floor to where the large bundle of white furs kept his wife and child safe and bundled warmly, Taikokajin grabbed her son's shoulder with one clawed fist—her talons pierced skin. Shimofuri watched the hanyou kneel beside his mate and child, reach out tenderly to them, and steadily ignored the scent of his own blood as his mother hissed in his ear. "I want you to make sure Garou is slain, and then, whether Tsukiyume is rescued or not…_kill Inuyasha…"_

The gray-eyed inuyoukai blinked, despite his best efforts to remain stoic and unaffected, "If he succeeds, Mother, why?" he tried to keep his voice uninterested, "And if you're so frightened of him—why aren't you calling the guards right now to make sure he doesn't take his mate and pup and try to escape you now, hmm?"

Her breath was hot in his ear; "You watch your tone with me—_chakunan._" He felt his stomach tighten with something close to nausea as she chuckled harshly, "He wouldn't dare now, not while he's human—and not after he feels he's failed in protecting them the first time. He can't now—not until the threat that Garou poses is gone…"

"But why kill him Mother?" the hanyou's mate had woken, groggily, and immediately thrown herself into Inuyasha's arms. Shimofuri wondered about the mortal woman briefly—she should be weakening with Garou having a grip on her soul…why did she still appear only fatigued? Those who no longer possessed their souls could do anything—from becoming physically ill, to falling into a coma, or, more likely, being _used_ or _possessed_ by the creature that held sway over their soul. Why hadn't this woman succumbed yet…?

"Because," Taikokajin whispered, suddenly soft in his ear, her claws withdrawing from the tiny wounds they'd made on him, "I want that child…"

A terrible freezing sensation reached up Shimofuri's esophagus. "It is the hanyou's pup…" he snarled, unable to contain his disgust.

Her claws closed once more over his shoulder, resuming her previous punishment. He winced briefly but otherwise made no sign. Inuyasha and his mate were conversing quietly, staring down in mutual awe and adoration of their pup. The child was now human in appearance, just like his father, Shimofuri could easily see the black hair and lack of bright white dog-ears. The scene of innocent happiness between mother and father and pup burned into his brain, straight from his retinas, and he tried to calm the tide of outrage at his mother's thoughtless desire…_she wants **their** pup…**their** child…**why?**_

"The hanyou is blind. That pup will be raised alone, away from the clan because Inuyasha is bitter over his past…" Taikokajin growled in his ear, he sensed rather than saw her rolling her pinkish eyes.

"The pup is _theirs…_" Shimofuri repeated, his voice hissing at her in disgust, "_Theirs_, Mother. Have more of your own if you so wish—but leave theirs with them." He tried, delicately, to extricate himself from her cruel claws, but ruthlessly, she tightened them.

"Watch yourself, Shimofuri…" she warned, and abruptly her claws were gone. His mother's powerful, brooding presence also vanished, leaving the only guard to watch over Inuyasha's behavior as Shimofuri. The young inuyoukai watched the couple together with something twisting inside him, emotions he'd never known he'd possessed. Try as he might he couldn't imagine his mother acting so loving with his own father. He'd always seen them as separate fortresses of solitude as a young pup before his father had passed on. And his mother's human lover had been nothing short of a toy…when Tsukiyume had been born Taikokajin had all but lost interest in her mortal lover.

Watching his hanyou cousin's obvious love of both the pup and his mate, Shimofuri felt a strange, bittersweet feeling blossom inside him, while at the same time the thought of pledging himself to Inuyasha as collateral solidified. _It would be the right thing to do…Mother couldn't harm either the mate or the pup as long as I am at risk._

Or, at least he _hoped_ that she couldn't…

* * *

Endnote: I am VERY SORRY! But I've been so unbelievably busy...I hope this chapter is enough...I don't have time to write out thank yous...anything that was important to you PLEASE...send me it again in a review...I hope next week (and this weekend maybe, I have a few plans then too GRR!) that I'll have the time...I'm VERY sorry again! PLEASE stick with me...graduation catching up...less time...gotta go now, it's way too late as it is, never...any...sleep! 


	17. Soul Stone

**Disclaimer:** Not a chance, I don't own any of them...well, Shimo-chan and his pink eyed mother I created but...yea...

**A/N:** Well, I've had trouble with the Miroku that I know and his now ex girlfriend, a close friend of mine. He ate lunch with me when he should've been with her, talked and walked with me when he should've been with me...I felt so ashamed, but I do enjoy his company and I didn't want to burn him, even though I knew that in his eyes I am little more than a peice of meat on the BBQ. Well, I told him off, scolded his heartless butt for treating her so badly and am trying to set things straight with the girls...but anyway, that's my life at the moment...cleaned out the fishtank lastnight, I smell like dirty fishwater (grumbles and scowls)...But anyway...

ON THE CHAPTER: This is in my opinion a filler, the goodbye between Kagome and Inuyasha (becuase he couldn't spend the night there obviously) and a discussion between Shimo-chan and the "Pink-bitch." Also you learn a little of what's going on with Garou during this time...I drop the fbomb in Garou's character's thoughts...just warning you there...next chapter is already underway, guys, I may even have enough for a preview...I have an interesting twist planned here involving the fourth character in this story that has been named but none of you have met as of yet: Tsukiyume...also look for the "rest" of Taikokajin's story, why she is the way she is. Just as Sesshomaru has reasons for the chip on his shoulder, Taikokajin has her own problems too, her own secret thoughts. (I thought that it would be interesting to note that I've made it a point that she never insults Inuyasha's half-demon heritage the way Sesshomaru would.) Also I reveal what I've thought Garou's animal-form to be, what he represented once as a demon...

Anyway, my thanks and answers and such at the end...five more reviews and we'll be to 300! (gapes widely, blinks stupidly) THANK YOU GUYS!

* * *

**Soul Stone**

Kagome woke with a shuddering jolt. Her breathing was ragged and heavy, her head pounded as if a meteor had struck it. Groaning, she sat up, slowly, shifting Koinu's weight on her chest as she moved. The pup cooed pleasantly and snuggled close to her in his innocent sleep. When she blinked the sleep from her eyes and looked down at him she noted that the pup's silvered hair and fuzzy white dog-ears had returned…

Inuyasha… 

Instantly she looked around, seeking her mate's presence. Some inner clock told her that it was barely dawn—would he still be with her…her mind was muddled, where was she? The dark shoji screened walls were unfamiliar to her…a pair of deep, dark gray-blue eyes haunted her memory, a build like Sesshomaru's, a voice calm and low like his too, powerful, but this one had been distinctly different and younger. _Shishi-sama,_ the heir to…where was she?

A floorboard squeaked and she turned rapidly in that direction, only to totter precariously as a wave of dizziness coupled with nausea swept through her. Even as her heart raced with fear at the possibilities of whoever it might be that was stalking up on her in the dimness of the vast, unfamiliar room, a warm, familiar voice broke through to her, squashing her terror. "Kagome…"

She saw the strong frame that her husband sported easily enough, caught the faint light that was shining off his silver locks. "Inuyasha!" she gulped, trying to move off the strange futon, out of the thick, overheated white furs to reach to him, but he got to her first.

His arms closed around her protectively, enveloping her in his comforting warmth. She sighed into his chest, savoring his scent. Sometimes she mused that Inuyasha's keen senses were rubbing off onto her. Just as her scent had come to mean so much to Inuyasha, his in turn had become a security blanket for her. All was right when his warmth, his arms, and his scent, were surrounding her.

The pup squirmed between them, and cooed. When Kagome peeked open one eye at him she saw that the child had begun to reach for his father's red robes with one little clawed fist. Inuyasha's purr-like liquid laughter rumbled from him then, bringing a smirk to Kagome's face in the dark.

"I missed you too, pup." Inuyasha's hands, vicious claws turned into gentle teasers and ticklers, scooped Koinu up and away from Kagome's lap and into his own. His nails trailed over the little child's flesh soothingly and Koinu squealed with baby laughter, squirming in Inuyasha's hold. After a moment he let up with the tickling and let Koinu fondle his fingers, hands, and claws. The pup dragged his father's index finger into his mouth and began to make a quiet, contented purring sound as he suckled on it.

Through Koinu's contented rumbles, Kagome realized that Inuyasha was staring at her in the dim light, his ears back turned in some sort of distress…in a moment she blinked, looking around as if for the first time, realizing that they weren't home, and apparently, weren't exactly safe…she threw her husband a worried look, knowing he could see it much better than she could've in the dark. "Inuyasha—what's going on…?"

One hand snaked out and touched faintly to her cheek. "Don't worry about it Kagome…you just keep yourself and the pup safe for me…" his tone was one of guilt and regret, and Kagome felt a tightening in her heart that she tried to destroy before it made her tear up. If he scented those tears… "I have to do something for an albino bitch before you and Koinu will be safe again."

Kagome pressed his hand closer to her cheek and frowned against him, letting him feel and see her reaction to his words. "Inuyasha…" she sighed, momentarily caught up by the sweet, loving, content sounds of their son, "I _trust_ you…but please—"

"No, you can't come with me Kagome, I'm sorry, but you can't. Not only is it too dangerous but…" she cut him off with a swift but gentle finger applying pressure against his moving lips.

"Shh…" she whispered, moving closer to him, "It's okay…I trust you. Whatever you say you need to do, and whatever you say is best for me to do while you're away doing it, I believe you, I'll do whatever you tell me to." Hesitantly she brushed her lips over his cheek and then, tenderly, over his lips as well.

She felt the hand that wasn't being used as a pacifier by Koinu bury itself in her hair, combing through it, and when their lips silently parted for a moment he took a deep, shaky breath, "Kagome," he whispered, and she could see the shine of his eyes through the dim light, "I'm sorry…" with a shock she felt warm moisture under her thumb as it grazed across his cheek.

"What for!" she was caught between laughing and crying in her confusion and worry over him.

"Sorry that I wasn't there to rescue you at the well when that damn hanyou-eating monster came for you…"

Blinking in stunned silence, Kagome stiffened suddenly, memories of a trauma that didn't seem to be happening to her, but rather someone else, as if it were a dream or an out of body experience, flashed before her. She shuddered in the wake of their tidal wave of power.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha shook her a little and Koinu whimpered in his lap, sensing the change in his parent's conversation. "Kagome!"

She shook her head and forced herself out of the strange reverie—only to gasp as a terrible pain entered her skull, ricocheting about it like echoes through a cavern. As she scrabbled at her temples and skull, trying to force the pain away as if it were a physical beast, swarming around her in the real world, a fatigue descended on her and made her shake. Her senses faded out for several seconds and then surged forward again; she shivered weakly in Inuyasha's strong arms.

"Kagome! What's wrong!" he rasped at her, she could hear Koinu whimpering fearfully.

"I-it's n-nothing." She stuttered, forcing the last of the terrible pain away. "Nothing at all…I'm just tired." For some reason this angered Inuyasha—though he didn't mention it at all, she could tell by the way his grip on her tightened and she could feel the bite of his claws even through the thickness of the jacket she was still wearing. But as fast as the emotion had come it vanished and he seemed to sag, enveloping her into his arms again and holding her close to him, near his pulsing heart.

In the dark he started to explain to her Taikokajin's appearance, and her nemesis, the hanyou-eating creature called Garou. When he spoke of such things Kagome's slender arms tightened around him with emotion, and Inuyasha was just able to scent her distress. He knew, without having to ask, that she was feeling his compassion for the hanyous involved…and for the fear that their son qualified…

"I understand, Inuyasha," she whispered when his story paused, her arms were still wrapped around him tightly, clinging to him like a lifeline. Koinu squealed and cooed between them, pleased by the closeness, the comfort, that his parents combined presence had on him. The pup's baby sounds directed both of their attentions to the child, and they observed him silently, lovingly…and sadly. The world was a dangerous place for something so beautiful, so innocent, and so helpless as a pup. As much as they loved and adored the child it was also a difficult thing to come to terms with: the knowledge that perhaps this son of theirs might never live to have pups of his own, and might die before they did. Could they handle such a loss?

Koinu gurgled and pointed his bright blue eyes up at his mother and father, looking between them keenly.

With her eyes still on the pup Kagome sighed, "I think that if this Garou monster had Koinu…" she shook her head, "I'd act just as Taikokajin has…to save my child."

Inuyasha lifted his gaze to stare in something close to outrage at his mate, but then, before he could shoot his mouth off at her, he noticed her expression. It was one she wore on her face when dealing with him long ago, in the days when he and she had been merely friends, seeking Jewel Shards, and he had been smitten still with Kikyo. It was a look, an inward glimmer of patience and understanding, that she'd offered him continuously. She'd loved him all that long time ago herself, wanted him so badly, and been so hurt when he ceaselessly chose Kikyo over her, but it wasn't in her nature to back away from pain selfishly. She stayed with him, endured it all, and succeeded.

Why would she wear that expression now? 

Whatever it was, he sensed, after many years living with her, that it wouldn't be wise to disagree. The expression was one of sweetness and compassion—empathy he supposed…but it was also a look of doggedness. Kagome was determined somehow…he scowled in the dark but said nothing about his observations, or about how he disagreed.

"Kagome…whatever happens, _please_, look after yourself and our pup,_ please._ Don't trust anyone in this castle…"

She looked to him with concern and worry flickering in her eyes, "Do you think that she would hurt us, even when her daughter _and_ her heir are at stake?" she asked, partly incredulous, but also genuinely worried. She trusted Inuyasha's abilities in summing up their enemies and allies alike.

He looked away, scowling again. "I don't know. She's young enough to have more pups if she wanted. If she doesn't like her own heir she could just use me to kill him…" the frown deepened, "But I doubt it," he met her gaze in utter seriousness, the golden eyes shining through the dim light of dawn, "That's the _only_ reason I'm going to work with that pink bitch…" although Inuyasha suspected it was within his ability to easily slaughter the whole lot of people in the castle, both human and demon alike if he so wished, he had realized, upon first coming to Lady Taikokajin's lands, that it was exceptionally unwise. If he killed them to free Koinu and Kagome and take them home wouldn't the inuyoukai clan in all its fame, strength, and superiority of numbers, follow him to the ends of the earth to exact revenge? He was a worthless hanyou to them, after all, right? Taikokajin—bitch though she was, and not, in Inuyasha's mind, in the innocent doggish meaning—was a _leader,_ a lady, an empress…he wasn't even a member of the clan the last he'd known…

Kagome took his chin, turning his face back so that he could look at her again, and offered him a tenderly genuine smile. "Whatever happens…" her eyes gleamed slightly with substantial pride, "We've survived far worse."

Inuyasha leaned in close to her, taking in her scent, his lips whispering against the skin of her cheek. A deep rumbling started in his chest, comforting Kagome, drawing her closer. She melted against him, burying her face into the crook where his shoulders and neck met. Still clinging to his father, sitting in Inuyasha's lap, Koinu gurgled and made experimental sounds with his tongue and lips happily. He knew nothing of the silent, meaningful exchange that went on between his parents, their tender goodbyes, silent promises of forever, whether it was in this world or the next.

For a brief, exultant moment the couple was already touching forever, enshrouded by it, encompassed in its strong arms, lost only in the comforting presence of the other—but time refused to turn her head for too long. Soon enough Inuyasha's senses returned to him with urgency, and the hanyou stiffened, his white ears swiveled on his head. Footsteps echoed through the hallways of the palace.

"What is it?" Kagome whispered, without opening her eyes at all, she didn't need those to be able to sense her husband's moods, the change in him.

"Someone's coming."

Koinu whimpered, immediately noticing his parents' new demeanor. Kagome started to scoop him up into her arms protectively, but Inuyasha's hand fell on hers, stopping the motion. Their eyes met and Kagome felt her stomach lurch as she recognized, even in the dim light, that Inuyasha was going to bid his pup goodbye as well, thought Koinu would never remember it. She fought the instinct to reach out, in a sort of denial, to pull their son away from him, as if insisting _'Kiss him later, Inuyasha—when you get back.'_ But she stilled her needy hands, her eyes fighting the sudden sting of tears as she watched her husband tweak their child's ears, making the baby squeal joyously, little blue eyes crinkling in glee.

* * *

His mother was wearing her sword, Shimofuri noted as he joined her procession that morning. Her pink eyes glittered—but not kindly or gently—when he saw her in the hall, waiting on him. Her robes were dark this morning, somber and informal. Her obi still didn't contain the characters that announced her name or her position proudly, though once again, as he joined her, Shimofuri had chosen to wear his simple white kimono and blue-gray obi bearing his name formally. It struck the young lord that he and his mother were separate even in the simple manner in which they chose to dress…he felt a pang of remorse at it. 

Immediately as he bowed to her—deeper than usual—he sensed her bristling anger just beneath the surface, tinged with something else he couldn't name just yet. "Mother," he greeted, coldly, "Would you walk out in the gardens with me this lovely morning?" nearly every morning he had done thus, since being old enough to walk any distance beside her. Taikokajin made time for such things even in the midst of war. Yet now Shimofuri doubted that she would keep with warm tradition. More likely she would want him to immediately take their hanyou cousin out of the castle so she could proceed to steal the couple's pup away…

She surprised him, "Yes, _chakunan,_" she nodded once, "I would very _much_ like to walk with you." She extended her hand lightly toward him and he accepted it, grasping the delicate, but thickly clawed hands into his own. They walked through the halls, the floorboards whispering beneath them. A servant followed at a distance; a young human girl in a skimpy kimono, waiting on Taikokajin, ready to jump at her slightest command.

They came into the center courtyard. Green assaulted the senses, pollen tickled Shimofuri's nose. A cherry blossom petal fluttered through the air, as pink as Taikokajin's eyes. Mother and son took to a dirt path, crossing through the groves of maples and birches and cherry trees. Lilac and mulberry bushes squatted alongside the trail.

Like Sesshomaru, ruling in the west, Taikokajin kept her gardens carefully controlled—enchanted one might've said. Her demonic energy kept the snow away, forced the trees into suspended animation—to them it was always middle spring. Outside the snow was just beginning to melt, inside the castle it had melted already and the blossoms were all newborns.

A sweet smell lingered in the air, flowed on the breeze—but neither inuyoukai sensed it, their thoughts and minds were attuned clearly to the other, searching each other. A silent game went on as mother and son strolled through the gardens. Other walks—and there were so many to think of!—might've been walked in silence, but none of them compared to this one. Those were a companionable silence, or a contemplative one, this, however, was a monster, lurking over the heir and the ruling lady's heads.

The servant waited, as the shy sun began to peek over the tapered roof of the castle, for mother and son to come out of their garden retreat. She was tense, wringing her hands…nothing was right or as it should've been that morning.

It was Shimofuri that lost the battle. "Mother," he began, nearly whispering, "You are angered at my motion to lend myself to the hanyou." It wasn't a question.

"Of course I am—you _idiot._" She scowled; her fine, possibly beautiful face marred and mixed up, "You are my _heir._" Her pink eyes pinned him, outraged abruptly. "Without you my lands go to one of your muddle-headed cousins."

Alarmed, Shimofuri threw his mother a sideways glance, "You are a young woman, Mother." He offered, softly. He wasn't actually sure how old she was—less than 600 years he was certain, and by demon standards that wasn't all that much. She wasn't subject to the human woman's middle-aged infertility, the curse of menopause. Thousand year old demon women were known to birth healthy offspring if they felt so inclined, though generally they didn't. Thus, his mother's words sent chills of worry and shock through him. _Does she sense her own doom is imminent?_

Taikokajin's clear face was cold and pale—frigid. He had only rarely seen her so cold. "The clan will no longer send me a mate, _chakunan._ And even if they did…" her face wrinkled, "It would do no good."

Confused, Shimofuri uttered one small, quiet growl. "Mother…"

"_Silence._" She hissed, facing him sternly suddenly, and Shimofuri obeyed as if he'd had a spell placed on him. His mother's pink gaze drilled into him, a wordless order, a decree he couldn't, wouldn't dare disobey or defy. His blue-gray eyes locked with hers, waited.

"It is time we went to fetch the hanyou and send you on your way with him." Her words dripped with acid, her scent struck him strongly—a mixture of fear and anger, "Keep yourself alive until the furui beast has been eliminated and Tsukiyume safe," she paused a moment, apparently fighting the thought of the opposite happening as well, "Then kill Inuyasha—do you understand?" her voice was reasonable, but his mind reeled at what she suggested—did she honestly believe it was a sane thing for her to request?

His tight expression revealed more than he likely wished it to as he stared back at her, hating the thought that he might have to obey her. "Why? Why is it necessary? So that you can have his pup…?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, the pink eyes gleamed hard, full of annoyance. "You are too shortsighted my son. Too much so, I sometimes fancy that you are too foolish to make a decent lord." When her prodding failed to get Shimofuri to argue, she tried a softer tone with him, words that made more sense. "I suspect, whether you and the hanyou slay Garou soon or not, by the time you do it will be too late for our cousin's human mate."

Her son blinked once, caught momentarily by surprise. It was true, at times he forgot little details that his mother ruthlessly remembered and tackled. He supposed that the hanyou's human mate's condition—with her soul under the slow, torturing withdrawal determined by Garou—had been unnoticed by everyone but his mother because the woman simply showed no sign of illness. It was unusual, Shimofuri wondered idly if the mortal mate of the hanyou had some power they didn't know of yet—but unless she demonstrated it or confessed it they'd never really know. Few demons could sense human powers, if they had any.

For clarification he asked, gently, "You say that she will die no matter the outcome of this?"

Her eyes narrowed on him once more, and in that second Shimofuri knew that that wasn't the only reason his mother had—it was simply the most reasonable one. "Yes," she murmured, her lips sounding thick, "And because she'll die no matter what, when Inuyasha returns with you and Tsukiyume and finds her that way…"

"He shall kill me and Tsuki both." He finished, pursing his lips pensively.

Taikokajin stared at her son's face carefully for several long seconds and then nodded once, slowly, deliberately. "Yes, he will—that is why you must kill _him_ first…"

"Mother," he bowed to her once, briefly, "I believe what you ask of me is impossible. Our cousin is legendary." He spoke formally, coldly, letting her sense how stubborn he was on this topic. "He defeated Naraku."

She blinked once, as if her son had told her that he could sprout a third arm. "You doubt your strength? You doubt the strength of the clan, of your heritage as an inuyoukai?"

His answer was immediate, "No…"

"Then you shall do as I say." She snapped, tired of his words, of his voice. Taikokajin strolled ahead of him, her kimono over-robes trailing along the smooth, pebbled path. She was heading back toward the castle.

After a lingering moment, during which Shimofuri closed his gray eyes, scenting the sweet breeze once, and then he followed after his mother, expressionless.

* * *

The door to the guest room slid open wide, revealing two richly dressed inuyoukai and several guards. Greeting them was the warmth between the tiny family that the guest room housed. Kagome stared on affectionately while Inuyasha snuggled Koinu, the pup squealed. 

Shimofuri felt suddenly sick inside seeing it. The love, the caring in the room was of a sort he remembered from his own years as a pup. He could recall his father wrestling with him, rumbling low in his chest to offer the paternal comfort an inuyoukai son needs. Also his memories were filled with images and recalled sensations left by his mother's influence on him, her touch, her laughter, her tickles, and her jokes. She had sung to him as a child, lulled him with legends of their kind transposed into music. But always his two parents had loved him apart from the other. Seeing his cousin holding the pup, his mate clearly enjoying the scene nearby, made Shimofuri tense with an eerie, inexplicable longing…his gaze slid once to his mother and then, unsatisfied, bitterly away.

Taikokajin, in turn, seeing the small family's interactions, reacted quite differently. Inuyasha's low rumbling reminded her of her own father too, sent her head swimming fondly…but the sight of the hanyou with the pup made her bristle. The child, adorable and helpless in its father's arms, with the human woman looking on, disturbed her to the core. The power Inuyasha held bothered her…the pup, who so looked like his father, the deep paternal rumble that was simply irreplaceable among inuyoukai…a pang of something close to envy or jealousy leapt into her soul, squeezed like a fist.

She stepped forward, barked her cousin's name, "Inuyasha."

The human woman withdrew slightly, moving to place Inuyasha between herself and the door to the room. Inuyasha drew his attention away from his child, a scowl etched on his face as if carved in stone. "Bitch?" he queried simply.

Taikokajin ignored his insult. "It is time that you leave. Shimofuri shall, of course, accompany you."

The pup passed from father to mother, clinging to her for a moment before his plaintive whimper rose—needy and clearly demanding. Kagome's face reddened and she rocked her son, trying to get him to forget his newfound hunger for the moment. Inuyasha rose to his feet, his stance and gait stiff as he strode toward his two distant cousins.

"Well Shimo-kun," he growled, eyes darting between the pink gaze of Taikokajin and the gray eyes of his new traveling companion, "We might as well get this damn thing started."

* * *

_The beast stirred, growling in his deep, thick, unnatural voice. His mind was sharp as a tack and recovered, miraculously. He rose to his feet, shook his head, clearing the final mists away. The dark magic swirled and pulsed, and then faded, dying off…_

_Garou looked around the clearing, cautiously. His ears detected nothing and he relaxed, turning his attention to the slumped, lifeless bodies of his latest casualties. One, still struggling to draw breath, was a half cat demon girl, about 11 years old by human standards. The other was older, about 25 he guessed in human years, a wolf hanyou. _

_The cat hanyou, he recalled, having stumbled over her while she was dozing in the sunlight. He cast a sleeping spell over her, dampening her senses, leaving her in a thick, irresistible sleep, akin to a coma. The wolf hanyou, meanwhile, had been one of three, all of them sisters. The one he'd captured had been out seeking herbs to help some sick human…and he'd subdued her just as he did all the others. Every one of them fell to him while they were minding their own various businesses, never suspecting that they would meet the terror that awaited them…_

_After capturing them, Garou always carted the hanyous off to the nearest lake. He liked using spots that were close to water. Using his dark magic the ancient demon would suspend his victims, sheltering them from time and consciousness, then he stole their souls, each and every one of them—storing them in a bright blue gem that he wore tightly about his neck secured by a leather strap. Even in his true form, the gem never parted with him. It was his Soul Stone, related to the Shikon Jewel in some ways, though it housed only one type of soul—hanyous—but could hold hundreds, not just four, at a time. _

_Without their precious souls, the half-demon's bodies were easy to disperse. Garou literally could chant a spell that turned the bodies into water if he so wished—or even eat them himself. Some bodies—because they were good looking, like pretty decorations, life-sized, real-feeling dolls—he kept longer than others. One of these was the pink-eyed bitch's hanyou whelp, the one called Tsukiyume. He'd left her body slung over the branch of one of this clearing's trees. The girl's legs and arms hung limply down, disguised by the tree's tendril-like extensions—the thing was a weeping willow—none would be able to spot her well. _

_It was only the souls of the hanyous that he needed—particularly inuhanyous and wolf hanyous—not their actual bodies. He consumed their souls like candy from the bluish Soul Stone he wore about his neck. To close his injuries from Shimofuri's attack on him of several days ago, for example, had cost about a hundred souls. To simply remain living when he should've died millennia ago, cost about one a day. But those were non-inu and non-wolf hanyous, those were the cheap fixes. Like an addict looking for the next big thing to try, Garou knew a way to make one soul go a lot farther—consuming the soul as well as sucking the blood, of a dog or wolf hanyou. _

_That was why, as the young wolf demon's form settled onto the earth, growing colder and colder as her body died without the aid of her soul, Garou stalked over to her, growling. Using two huge, rough, unevenly clawed hands flung the limp woman onto her back so that her face stared up unseeingly at the sky…he lowered his fangs to her neck and flesh ripped, crimson spilled, dribbled and leaked. After a time he snarled and spat, tossing the crumpled, limp, lifeless body away. It tumbled sickeningly, rolling down the embankment until it reached the lake water._

_There was a splash and Garou sneered, slashing his claws through the dirt, clearing away the stench of wolf's blood, of hanyou's stink. To think what he'd been reduced to…**and I was so close to freedom, so close…**_

_His earth brown eyes flicked toward the willow tree where Tsukiyame, the pink bitch's whelp, was still sleeping under the spell he'd placed over her. He'd never had a chance to steal the girl's soul and imprison it inside his Soul Stone before the pink bitch had sent her gray-furred pup after him. At any rate he also was a little uncertain of the whelp's soul to begin with—it was different from most of the others, larger somehow. He'd kept her that way for bargaining leverage, and now he was glad he'd done it…**the pup, the freedom I've longed for, is out there…waiting.**_

_He'd seen the child, heard it screaming, the impossible made possible…_

_Long millennia ago his people, ancient mammalian predators of the earth, had ruled with brute and brawn. Brain wasn't necessary, but he considered himself not so short on those as well. They had survived and dominated to millions of long years, uncountable changes in the seasons…and then the earth had changed. It became colder. The animals that his demon kind represented disappeared. The spirits of the earth determined that his kind was no longer right for the earth. They were cursed: each one became sterile. _

_Without new pups born each season the demons dwindled and dwindled until only Garou and a few scant others remained. Garou, the expert on dark magic, suspended all of them in a deep sleep and left their bodies in a safe place while he went onward, seeking the curse's only deemed cure: a thing said to be impossible—the child of a male, highborn inuhanyou. Now Garou had finally found that thing. A highborn inuhanyou had reproduced and born a son. It was that pup that Garou needed to suck the life from._

_**And I came so fucking close!** _

_He knew that he'd bargained with the pink bitch's full demon whelp—and that on the mentioned day—it hadn't gone through as he'd requested. The male hanyou called Inuyasha and the pup hadn't been returned to him. He still wasn't free…that meant he could kill Tsukiyume and the mortal mate of the hanyou. He was uncertain of going through with it nevertheless. The pink bitch's hanyou whelp had a different soul, it tended to refract his magic. And the mortal woman's soul was very much the same sort of thing. It was massive and powerful. Garou thought it'd take a day or more to extract it enough that the woman would really grow ill, let alone die the soul was that huge… _

_So he found himself hesitating, though he hated himself for it…there were always more hanyous to be found, subdued, vanquished, and finally consumed._

_The thought of the pink bitch's whelp in particularly reached him. If he could get part of the girl's soul, perhaps, he might be able to possess her a little and control her, make her be the tool, his way to make the pink bitch hand over the hanyou pup of Inuyasha's. When the thought refused to leave him, Garou rose up from the place where he'd been lying in the sunlight of the clearing next to the lake, the tow most recent dead hanyou bodies around him, and walked toward the willow tree. Ducking under its tendrils he focused his mind on his dark powers. The blackness around him ebbed and flowed like the tides, reaching and then retreating and back again. _

_At first the magic was completely repelled by the girl, but after a time Garou found he could tweak it just enough to gain a little bit of access…and a little was all he needed. After all, the hanyou Inuyasha's pup was a tiny thing, but that child's life would be the last thing to redeeming his people, to restoring them in their proper place on the earth: the dominant predators. Cats and dogs and wolves were all jokes to Garou, they were nothing like the saber-toothed hyena beasts of the millennia passed._

_Nothing like the creodonts…_

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_Endnote:_ Almost 300 reviews! WOW! How many chapters is this? 300 for only 17 is it? (blinks) WOW! THANK YOU EVERYONE! 

ThankYouto all readers and reviewers:_**slummyreddragon, Tiamath**_ thank you, I'm glad that I could please you, I've gotten lazy though in these last weeks and I need to pull my butt into gear, but thanks for understanding (hugs). _**BeccaPatty, SerenaClearwater**_ hehe, I actually never meant for her to be so evil, she just wrote herself that way! (blinks) _**KumiTsukiChihiroItaiRindesayu **_whoo! Long name! _**Yami Chikara, FanstasyFreak**_ he might do that but he has torn feelings... _**The Moonless Night**_ Drawing? Pictures! YAYS! I'd LOVE to see it, if you do have the time, and thank you (grins) it makes me really happy to know I've done a good job describing something...(nods) and your ideas on Taikokajin, as well as your questions, are excellent ones! (grins) We'll just have to see... _**kirarakitty**_ In the first story, "Hanyou"(first few chapters I think), I mention Kilala/Kirara and what became of her. Becuase Sango was off and on again pregnant and busy with babies (and in the anime it was mentioned that she passes through the generations of demon slayers) Kilala is helping a different slayer elsewhere until Sango's children are older or until Sango's slaying career picks up again. In a further companion/sequel to "Hanyou" and this story I could tackle Miroku and Sango's story, and perhaps that of the second generation all together...in that one I would definately bring back Kilala. And I could pair Shimofuri with someone later perhaps ((blinks) more sequels?) but as an heir he must produce a full blooded youkai heir of his own...otherwise Taikokajin, who isn't like Sesshy at least in this way, wouldn't care who he chooses...interesting idea tho... _**Lady Mac**_ sorry about your dyslexia (grins evily) _**adamile**_ thank you! and yes, Shimo-chan has a soft family side to him that his mother doesn't have. It probably comes from his father. _**InuPhoenix**_ (sniggles) I want a Shimofuri plushie too! _**FYI IY is mine, freelke**_ wow! You're keeping up with me...I shall try to do as you request... _**orangepencils, TheDarkAngel101**_ shorter? I'm sorry...I'll try...I do tend to be long winded (smirks) _**sarah, NefCanuck,Sesshomaru13, fanfiction1**_(on Taikokajin)her character is evolved in my head deeply...I hope to get her clearly painted to everyone but in case I don't I may have to do as Sueric did, writing a series of one-shots and shorts that let the readers understand the characters better...I have her past written in my head, her "puppy"hood. Would you be interested? Anyone? _**DreamLily**_, ooo, really? Wow! I have recruiters now! (blushes) _**Inuadmirer**_ (shakes her head) that darn thing just wasn't going to work! It's okay though, (bows) I thank you very much for trying, and for thinking of me...speaking of more babies, think Inu and Kag could handle another one? (winks) _**Mom the Manga Fan**_ I knowbiting was one of the things that my own mother complained about, and she nursed all three of us until we were...gosh, who knows how old my littlest sister was...maybe three or four even! And bottle feeding not so quickly, I was just playing on her uncertainties as a young mother caught between our time and Inuyasha's time...I know babies can be very difficult when it comes to learning to take bottle vs. the real thing. But sometimes the bottle is an improvement--I was the firstborn in my family and my mother wanted to nurse me so much but she had no milk. I also refused a bottle, thusI suffered terrible cholic (spelling there? grr...) as a result and was a very unhappy baby for my first year or so until she could get me to eat semi-solids and drink out of a dish (I learned that I'm told as young as like 3 months)...hey, keep those comments coming, I'm a very naiive 19 year old, no kids of my own, only my mom's gushing stories (smirks) thank you! And the kimonos (blushes) that's my own obsession...sorry...I do it to force myself to visualize it as if it were memory... _**Shikou**_ Good to have you! And great name... **_Roku_** hehe...my best prologue ever! (snickers) _**Lady Kjerston of the Western**_ (nods) I love him too! (squees!) inuyasha'sbabe07 (picks up a red rose and sniffs it happily) Thank you! Ah...Myoga...I doubt he could've died in the battle b/c he wouldn't have really gotte near it seeing as he's such a coward...but as for his involvment in this story or the last one...all I can say (blushes) is "Oops..." (grins guiltily)

Kay, last notes: Creodonts were an ancient groupmammalian hunters, primitive with boxy heads and long tails like cats today. Thus their heads were like a dog's but their tails like a cat's and their bodies...I think most of them had five toes (no due claw...is that "dew" or "due" or something else completely different?) and big crushing teeth and "canines." They were examined on Discovery Channel's "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts" special a year or two or three ago...it has been argued that they are the ancestors of today's modern carnivores (dogs, cats, wolves, bears etc...) but lately it is believed that that's not true--they just went extinct. They lived I think about 30 million years ago...I think this is a good link for something of an idea about them if you're interested... http/ www. acnatsci. org/museum/ leidy/paleo/ hyaenodon.html ...I hope that that like works...just take out the extra spaces. Also the ucmp. site is very good and extensive...me being the nerd I am I get lost in it very happily.

Until next time! 13 days until I graduate...


	18. Into The Western Lands

**Disclaimer:** Nope...

**A/N:** Sorry that this has taken a while again guys...I'm sorry...(sighs) still more complications with the guy I have dubbed my Miroku, he's trying to IM me even as I type this despite my away message...he and his girlfriend have broken up and now, less than a week later he wants me so bad he can taste it, and I have to struggle with this delicate balance between friend and too much...graduation is like two weeks now...anyway... CONGRATS! to The Moonless Night who was the lucky number 300! YAYS! You've gotten this more than once haven't you? Well anyway, I think this chapter needs no explanation...enjoy! THANK YOU all reviewers! Over 300 now I think! YAYS! My computer tweaked at the end of this and ate a lot of what I wrote in reponseso a lot of those who reviewed for this were never named in it...I'm VERY sorry about that, but time is of the essence, and I need to post this...enjoy...

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Into The Western Lands**

The pup was utterly bored. His miserable whimpering and whining seemed to encourage Kagome's headache. What was worse was that she felt absolutely miserable with the knowledge that Inuyasha had missed their son's true first word-like sounds. These were made, it was true, as a result of his boredom, but still, Kagome mourned that Inuyasha had missed them.

So far she was an ignored member of Lady Taikokajin's household. A maid or a servant scurried by every so often—Kagome made out the sounds of their feet, bare and sandaled or slippered—didn't matter. She listened eagerly whenever some members of the household chatted near enough for her to overhear it, though most often it was a very boring and bland discussion, hardly worth hearing. But once it was enough to make her heart start up rapidly—and Koinu against her squirmed at it, mumbling incoherently in his baby language at her cardiac muscle's sudden eagerness. A guard and a maid met in the hallway outside the room that sheltered her and talked quietly, either having forgotten that she was in the room, or thinking that because she was so quiet she must've been asleep.

"Did you hear Mitori?" came a man's voice, gruff, whispering.

"About what, Ikio?" a soft, pleasant woman's words responded, gently.

"Momo—the Lady's current favorite among the servants—says that she's been ordered to fix up the pup's room."

Apparently Mitori was stunned by this news, "Really? But why? How? Will the inuyoukai clan send her any more mates? I thought that they—"

"No, they won't send her a mate." The guard, or at least Kagome thought he was probably a guard, was saying, laughing as he went on, "But they wouldn't send her one before when Tsukiyume was born…you know the Lady doesn't _ever_ stop until she has what she wants. She's as ruthless as they come! I'd say she'd take that feisty hanyou cousin of hers as a mate if she was so inclined for sure!"

Mitori gasped as Ikio chuckled at his own joke, "_Could_ she, really? Do you think so? Are they first or second cousins? How close within the family do the demons of this clan mate?"

"I don't know for certain Mitori, it's just a rumor but—" this time the conversation was interrupted when Koinu began crying against Kagome, eager to nurse again, being his usual ravenous self. Kagome tried to shush the child, but, truly imbued with the spirit of his father, the pup's bright blue eyes threw her an almost angry glare and the ears turned backward. His crying grew shriller still.

The voices in the hall fell away into quick whispers that Kagome couldn't make out and then their footsteps echoed through the hallway, passing her by. She sighed, wondering if they'd _meant_ to make her feel miserable, as it was obvious to her that they hadn't merely forgotten that she was present.

She settled down to nurse Koinu again, wondering when, or if, they would ever remember to feed her or even simply show her where the bathroom was. She scowled at that, realizing not for the first time, that she had to pee. Shifting uneasily on the mattress that had been spread out for her sometime the night before while she had been unconscious, Kagome tried to ignore her fears and concentrate on the room around her, ignoring her bladder as well as the swarming pain in her skull.

It was larger than the bedroom she and Inuyasha shared. Screens allowed sunlight to filter through, but left the room in a sensual—or more accurately at the moment: disturbing—dimness. It was only perhaps two hours since she'd last seen Inuyasha and the two inuyoukai that called this palace home…was she in the main area of the castle, or further away somewhere? Did the dog demons need to travel quite a ways to reach her? That could explain why she'd been neglected for so long—but somehow Kagome doubted it. The beauty of the room was striking, too striking to be apart of the servant's quarters. Fear threatened to attack her, to weaken her, but Kagome staved it off, chewing on her lower lip as if worrying it might just cure her external problems.

A few minutes later she turned her attention to the screens and their gentle light, trying to take some pleasure, some comfort from them silently. Koinu squirmed, bored in her grasp, fighting her grip on his anxious young body. Some instinct within her was reluctant to let him forage about the room away from her continuous watch and protection. The pup wanted nothing more than to pick up the littlest crumbs from around the room and gobble them up—whether those tiny goodies were rat droppings or poison pills he didn't care in the least.

Inuyasha's worry over the protection of the pup in particular was heavy on her mind. If he didn't think it was safe she would follow and obey that interpretation. Inuyasha understood the inner workings of the inuyoukai mind she suspected, and the thought of leaving her and the pup had filled him with a worry that she didn't like in the least. But as Koinu squirmed and squealed in her arms, fighting her, whimpering pitifully, Kagome had to let him go, though she refused to take her eyes off him as he muddled about the furs that had kept them both warm the night before.

She shivered in the dimness; her body was tired, weary. For a moment she bowed her head, slipped into a gloomy dozing sleep…_just a moment of peace,_ she thought weakly, closing her eyes on Koinu as he picked at the hair on the white furs in front of her happily. When she opened them again—seemingly only a few moments later—it was to the steadily increasing sound of crying.

Immediately Kagome sprang wide awake and looked around, her maternal instinct crushing even the terrible pain in her skull. Her eyes scanned the room and found Koinu on the opposite side, bumping his little clawed fists against the wall. She blinked, _how did he get there so fast?_ But even as she rose to her feet and rushed to reach her child, a smaller voice whispered the truth: _You dozed off for a longer time than you think you did, look at the light…_

It was far brighter than it had been before—as much as an hour had passed and the sun had climbed to its zenith, lighting the earth far more eagerly and effectively than it had before her nap. _I must've been more tired than I thought I was!_

When she scooped Koinu up into her arms the reason for his distress was swiftly revealed to her—he had dirtied hid underpants of course.

"Oh no…" she muttered, looking around desperately. When they'd been dragged through the well and into the Feudal Era again Kagome had been wearing her jacket, some loose sweat pants and the too-big-for-her red robe. Koinu, meanwhile, was even less dressed for the occasion—wearing only his diaper the pup might as well have been naked, he probably would've enjoyed that more.

At any rate none of it left her with another diaper.

"Shhh…" she murmured, brushing his tears away gently, but Koinu's clawed fingers fought hers, scratching and clutching at her hands. The little blue eyes were overflowing with salty moisture.

She searched the room again—and saw only the white furs. _Can I make that work? Would the dog demons kill me for it if I did? Are those furs worth anything to them?_

Just as she made up her mind and began to step forward to use the furs, Kagome hesitated, hearing the feather whisper of robes and the gentle tapping of feet on the hard floors outside her room. Fear coursed through her, lending the young mother strength she hadn't known she possessed. Holding Koinu carefully to her she dashed to the furs and placed him there, despite the pup's struggling. She buried him under a few of them, though his cries increased in intensity at it, then she rushed toward the door, waiting tensely as the taping footsteps reached the door…

It opened and, although poised to strike, Kagome hesitated when a young woman returned her gaze wearing a short blue kimono. The maid—for that was certainly what she was—blinked in surprise for a moment and the fell to her knees, bowing low. "Lady Inuyasha…" she murmured, though her voice sounded hesitant and confused. After a moment she sat up once more, her eyes nervously sought out Kagome's and she asked, "Can I call you that, as Lord Inuyasha's mate?"

"I…suppose so."

The maid girl bowed again, easily. "I was sent to tend you, Lady Inuyasha, by my mistress, lady Taikokajin. She scented that your pup needed assistance, and so do you."

Kagome felt a brief sense of unease ass through her. "If I may just have a diaper and something to clean with I could take care of Koinu myself…"

The young servant shook her head, "No, you do not need to concern yourself with the changing of his messes, my lady." Another bow was administered, though this was the shallowest of them all, and Kagome thought she sensed amusement around the maid.

"But he's _my_ son…" Kagome stubbornly insisted, remembering Inuyasha's fear.

"As you wish." The ghost of a smile appeared on the servant's lips again, "Please remain thus until I return with the proper things." She quickly turned and left, disappearing so easily, without any remarkable sound to announce the departure.

Kagome looked back toward the bundles of white furs and the frustrated wailing of her son, saw that Koinu had found his way out of the things, and had proceeded to attacking his diaper with his little claws. "Oh no you don't…"

When the young maid returned, carrying towels, water, and a cloth diaper, Kagome was immensely relieved. Once Koinu was clean, and his crying had lessened to a diminished whimpering, she tried to learn all she could from the maid.

"Am I to be your mistress's prisoner?" Kagome kept her voice quiet and timid, hoping that that tone would be the most likely to get the truth from the dog demon's servant.

"Lady Taikokajin?" the maid asked, her face blank of any readable emotion, "She is watching over you and the Lord Inuyasha's child." The young woman's eyes strayed to the pup's form, crawling on the white furs, a short distance from the two women. She smiled genuinely, her dark eyes sparkling at Kagome, "He _is_ absolutely adorable!" she gushed.

Warily Kagome ventured a new question, "Does you mistress plan to have more children—_pups_ of her own?"

The servant girl shrugged easily, "Lady Taikokajin, I believe, has had her fill of them." Kagome wasn't sure what to make of such a response, for although it was truthful she sensed, it was also inadvertently cryptic, for it was mentioned in a mournful tone.

"What do you mean?"

As if realizing what she was saying suddenly, the maid bowed again, uncertainly, and murmured, "Lady Inuyasha," once quietly. Kagome suspected that she was stalling for time, thinking over her words, perhaps wondering if they were thing she should not be speaking of or not. Kagome wondered if it were possible that the dog demon mistress of the palace could overhear their words from wherever she was even now.

But despite the nervousness, the maid answered Kagome's question anyway, "My mistress has had many pups in her lifetime, and is still young enough to have more, but only Shishi-sama and Lady Tsukiyume have survived—" she seemed to stop herself there, meeting Kagome's eyes with an abruptly dark glimmer in her eye before she turned her gaze away, focusing on the easy neutrality that little Koinu offered.

Kagome was wrapped up in her worried thoughts, thinking of the conversation that had been held by the guard and the maid of earlier—Ikio and Mitori. _Could this inuyoukai want to force Inuyasha into mating with her? That isn't possible…_she tried to cover the frown that was forming over her face as the thought took form in her mind. Never before had demons played such sick games as that, in fact usually they underestimated Inuyasha and wanted him dead because he was half human…_but this Taiko-demon woman has a daughter that's hanyou, doesn't she? So what does she think of half-demons then? _

Distractedly, Kagome had failed to take notice of the confident tread that was approaching their room from the outside hallway, the swish of thick luxuriant robes. Instead she looked to the maid beside her, who was still beaming at the sight of Koinu, who was now sucking on the furs, drooling on them as his tongue intimately explored the foreign object's texture.

She reached forward, realizing with a frown that she didn't know the girl's name, and touched her arm, asking carefully, "What is your name…?"

The girl smiled slightly and lowered her head in a bow, "I am called Nikimi."

"Nikimi…" Kagome tasted the name for a moment, nodding, and then pressed forward, "Can you talk about your mistress's hanyou daughter…what did you say her name was?"

Nikimi opened her mouth to speak when another, deeper, more powerful voice rose in answer from the doorway. "Her name is Tsukiyume."

Both Kagome and Nikimi whirled their heads in the direction of the door and saw that, silent as a spirit or phantom—or perhaps she was closer to an assassin that slips in through the window at night to end another's breathing—Taikokajin had appeared. The pink-eyed, pallid-skinned, silver-haired demon woman wore a dark purple kimono; her obi was small and silver, matching her hair. Though her clothing was muted and no longer extravagant—indeed, Kagome had more expensive, better-looking kimono in her own closets at her home, presents from Inuyasha—Kagome still got the feeling that Taikokajin was like a distant island in the ocean. She was a faraway, dreamlike place of serenity and beauty, but _only_ on the outside.

And as the pink eyes flickered, seeming to burn just underneath the surface, Kagome thought she caught a glimpse of the _real_ creature beneath the surface of that tranquil outer garden. It was a place that groaned and shifted and twisted, like the bowels of the earth, hot and always burning away at itself. Once again she felt something stir within her—pity perhaps, until those pink eyes dashed to where Koinu was still clutching at the white furs. Then Kagome saw something in those eyes that made her stomach clench up like a fist, her head spin. Nikimi's words, _'Lady Taikokajin, I believe, has had her fill of them,'_ resounded inside her mind again, but now they brought no comfort whatsoever.

A thought, cold and heartless as the northern wind in a blizzard in the middle of January, insinuated itself into her core: _She hungers for more…_

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"So where does this bastard hang out?" Inuyasha growled over his shoulder in the direction of the gray-eyed inuyoukai lord behind him. He struggled to hide his stiffness with the "pup" but wasn't sure if his restraint was effective. Surely the pup could scent his unease…? But if that were true the pup revealed nothing, he offered Inuyasha only a respectful silence, and, like wolves in a pack, he let Inuyasha lead the way as if he were the alpha, the highest, strongest member of the group. Such behavior—from one that was a hostage at best, an enemy lying in wait at worst—made Inuyasha's muscles tight with suspicion. He'd learned, through hard experience over many long years, that strangers were rarely allies. They almost always sprung some hidden trap further down the path. 

The cool, calm voice that answered back was gentle and without emotion, "I do not understand your expression."

"Feh!" the hanyou half turned his upper body to the left, throwing a deadly glare over that shoulder into the clear, youthful face of his hostage. "That bitch must keep you locked up, Shimo-kun."

The gray-blue eyes of his hostage looked quickly away, though not before Inuyasha caught sight of the inuyoukai's brief flare of pain and anger. "I am her heir, cousin." The gaze lifted again, the blue of the young dog demon's eyes touched upon the golden of his hanyou cousin's, like the slithering currents of a river reflecting the dying brilliance of the sunset. Inuyahsa refused to shudder or cower under the intensity of those eyes, though there was a curious stirring within him: whether it was remaining wariness or something akin to respect he wasn't sure yet.

"Surely, cousin," Shimofuri's voice was deep now, serious, "You wouldn't allow your son to join the company of your enemies—my mother's feelings are the same. She wishes only what is best for her pups."

Inuyasha scowled, his lips parted slightly to reveal the gleam of white fangs. He turned away from Taikokajin's heir, focusing his eyes on the path they were walking, the melting piles of crunchy snow, and the shimmering expanse of a lake to one side, barely free of ice. Long legged birds—cranes, Inuyasha supposed—languished in the shallows amidst the reeds that bent and swayed in the wind.

"She seems like a cold-hearted bitch to me, pup." He grunted, half to himself, still trying to silence his unease and discomfort at the situation. "But I'll ask it again for you—where can we find this bastard that has your sister, or whatever the hell excuse that pink bitch had for sending you and I out here…" _and taking Kagome and Koinu as her own hostages…_his clawed fingers flexed dangerously at his sides.

"Garou prefers the southern lands. He is a creature built for open plains and warmth; our lands do not suit him. We shall likely have to follow his trail from and through the Western lands."

Inuyasha scowled deeply, the calm, dispassionate voice behind him reminding him entirely too much of the current dog demon lord that presided over those Western lands…he remembered clearly somewhere a little over a year ago he had had to fight for his mate and unborn child, ready to die unless he could live beside them. It seemed just yesterday to him, but in that expanse of time so much had changed—Koinu had come, blessing their lives together with new meaning, new depth. But although Koinu's arrival was a huge event, irrevocably changing both of them, Inuyasha thoroughly remembered the promise he had given his brother in exchange for peace between them. To never enter the Western Lands again…his ears fell back, flat against his skull.

"I ain't going through Sesshomaru's lands." He snapped, halting abruptly. He heard Shimofuri come to a quick stop as well.

"Why?" it was spoken quietly, hesitantly—likely because Shimofuri was carefully trying to avoid inciting Inuyasha's wrath.

"That doesn't matter, you stupid pup!" the hanyou rounded on his full-demon cousin, glaring viciously. "I. Won't. Go. Through. There." He dared Shimofuri to object with his golden gaze, "You'd better come up with a better way of finding this _Garou_ bastard, got it?"

Shimofuri's gray eyes were cool and indifferent. "Sesshomaru will not care that we travel through his lands—perhaps we might even call upon his help in the matter." He bowed his head slightly, noting the way Inuyasha's fists were swiftly clenching up at his sides in silent rage at Shimofuri's insistence. "There is no other way to know where Gaoru has gone, Lord Inuyasha."

The hanyou's rage abruptly diffused, confusion and suspicion filtering in to replace it instead. _Lord Inuyasha?_ Shimofuri had made a point of calling Inuyasha an equal—maybe even a superior…immediately Inuyasha suspected that it was deliberate manipulation, but when he searched Shimofuri's face and tone of voice, as well as the scents that the pup's body revealed, no malice was revealed. It seemed to be genuine respect.

He screwed up his features, forced on an outer shell of anger onto his face, but remained confused and unsure of the young gray-eyed lord.

"Why in the seven hells would my jackass brother care anything for our plans to kill this Garou bastard? If I know Sesshomaru he'll just kill us without asking what we're doing."

Shimofuri bowed his head once more, "He would not. While you are in my company he could not follow such a desire. It would cause a civil war amongst the families. Also," the gray gaze met Inuyasha's with a keen sparkling in their depths now, "Sesshomaru's mate is human. His offspring will be hanyous—subject to Garou's threat."

Inuyasha blinked for a moment. He'd forgotten that girl again. For a moment he smirked to himself. _Sesshomaru is such a hypocrite…_

"If you're sure…" he growled, deeply, throwing Shimofuri a warning glare. The youth nodded assuredly, a glimmer of pride showing in the delicate lines of his handsome face. The turquoise marks on his cheeks seemed to flare, especially prominent in that moment.

"I am."

The hanyou nodded once, lips pursed. "Then let's get our butts moving."

* * *

Taikokajin forced her features to remain emotionless and calm as Nikimi—the foolish, big-mouthed wench of a maid—bowed carefully to her. "My lady…" she murmured at the floor in the midst of it. The inuyoukai woman didn't acknowledge the maid's show of respect; in fact she completely ignored it and looked instead to her hanyou cousin's mate curiously. 

"Nikimi," she called, keeping her voice soft and gentle, but her eyes were intense, and they never left her cousin's human mate. "You have not introduced me to Inuyasha's mate properly yet." Though she was speaking with Nikimi, her tone and her eyes seemed to be aimed at the woman, daring the human to introduce herself. Taikokajin studied her carefully, trying to judge her cousin's inner mind by judging his choice of mate carefully. It had not passed Taikokajin's notice that the human woman, for as frail as she was, despite her terrible position—kept inside a foreign castle by a dog demon mistress that she knew just about nothing of—had failed to bow to her.

Accepting Taikokajin's challenge, the human woman bowed once—improperly, Taikokajin thought—and answered, "I am Kagome Higurashi and—"

Taikokajin waved one clawed hand slightly, gently, the single movement silencing Kagome instantly. The demon woman's curiosity was piqued, "You do not accept your mate's name?" she asked, genuinely perplexed. Her pink eyes narrowed as she regarded the bizarre human woman before her.

Kagome blinked, confused and uncertain of a response. "Take my mate's name?" she asked, hesitantly, then frowned outright, "What _is_ Inuyasha's surname?"

Nikimi had also begun to stare with surprise at Kagome's apparent naivety. As Taikokajin looked at her cousin's mate she thought that although the human was gifted with a kind heart she wasn't reasonably intelligent. Her gaze strayed to the pup, his silvered hair bright in the room, blending well with the white furs, his ears swiveling toward the sounds of the adults' conversation. She could scent the pup's spittle, his dirtied diaper, his simple happiness and security…her body stiffened. _That stipid woman and my bitter hanyou cousin will raise that adorable pup away from the clan, away from its teachings and protection. He will grow to be as stupid as the woman, as bitter and uncouth as Inuyasha, and as ignorant of the world of his kin as any peasant human! It is an outrage; such beings are not fit to be blessed with such a pup!_

"A demon always takes its father's first name as a surname. Sesshomaru—your mate's half brother, right? He calls himself Sesshomaru Inutaisho. Inuyasha would've done the same thing, but I suppose he didn't know it." Nikimi was explaining amiably to the rather befuddled but interested Kagome, "When a demon is mated they take on the male's name for as long as they are united. Any offspring they have take the father's first name as a surname of course. So…" she looked toward the squealing pup, smirking at the child's apparent delight as he entertained himself, "What is your pup's name, Lady Inuyasha?"

"Kagome is fine…" the human tried to respond, but Taikokajin had lost most of her patience.

"Answer Nikimi's question." She murmured, her voice cold and emotionless, but holding the full weight of a command in its depths.

Kagome gave the demon woman a quick glare but answered Nikimi nonetheless, "His name is Koinu."

Nikimi's smile was immediate and she covered her smiling lips with one hand, laughed delicately into them. "How appropriate a name!" she exclaimed, beaming. She tried to look back to her mistress for the same jovial demeanor, but saw that Taikokajin was deep within her brooding, ruling lady's thoughts. In a second she was looking back at Kagome and giving her a lesson again, "As I was saying, Lady Inuyasha, your pup will be called Koinu Inuyasha."

Kagome frowned, "Not Koinu Inutaisho?"

The young maid shook her head, "No, just as Shishi-sama is not called 'Shimofuri Koshoshiro' after his grandfather, or 'Shimofuri Taikokajin' after…" her words were silenced by the small, barely audible growl that issued forth in warning from Taikokajin. Immediately Nikimi's eyes widened and she turned swiftly on her knees and bowed very low, her forehead touching to ground, to her mistress. "Forgive me, mistress."

The pink eyes were alarmingly bright, as if glowing from the inside out. Kagome remembered that Sesshomaru could do the same thing just before he…she silenced her thoughts and felt her hands shake as she started to bow alongside Nikimi, though she had done nothing but listen to the maid speak. She stopped the bow halfway down as she heard Koinu's innocent gurgling. The pup's safety immediately overshadowed everything else and she rose quickly to retrieve him from on the furs…she felt Taikokajin's suddenly burning hot, heavy gaze follow her as she moved, scooping up the pup into her arms.

"Will you raise your pup within the clan?" Taikokajin snapped suddenly, her tone demanding, utterly without any pretense of respect.

Kagome shuddered, avoided the inuyoukai woman's heavy gaze as she settled back down on her knees just behind the still bowing Nikimi. Koinu was clutched to her chest carefully. "It depends on my husband's opinion." She answered, evasively.

"It will be a waste." Taikokajin spat after a lengthy silence, her voice thick with cold disgust. After a moment the demon woman slipped out of the room in a rustle of robes, calling over her shoulder the moment her form was gone, "Nikimi—have our guest bathe, the pup too—they stain this entire hallway with their stench."

"Yes my lady." The maid immediately answered, bowing to the now vanished mistress, her forehead once more kissing the hard floors. After a moment she rose and turned to Kagome, reaching down to help her up.

"What did you say that made her so angry?" Kagome asked, confused, trying to remember what they had been talking about. It had seemed so trivial to her, why would it enrage the seemingly serene Taikokajin? Kagome had thought that the demon woman was like Sesshomaru—only to be proven quite wrong now.

Without looking her in the eye Nikimi took Koinu gently into her arms, shushing the pup as he whimpered at her unfamiliar scent. When she answered Kagome it was in a quiet, whispering voice, "I spoke of the fact that her son, the heir, Shishi-sama, will not carry her name as his surname. He will carry on his father's name instead: Shimofuri Haiseishoku he will be called."

Kagome scowled, "Why would that make her so mad?"

Nikimi looked up at her now, the dark eyes made even darker by some strange unreadable emotion in their depths, "My mistress hated her mate Haiseishoku. She wishes Shishi-sama to drop his father's name and to take hers instead."

"He won't?"

The maid nodded as, cautiously, Kagome and she stepped out of the guest room and into the hallway. Kagome blinked with the sudden surge of sunlight to her senses. "Shishi-sama was very fond of his father…Lady Taikokajin hates that." She laughed nervously, as they walked, their bare feet padding over the floors, "I am told that they fought over Shishi-sama as if he were the last bit of meat in a stew."

Kagome remembered, vaguely, the gray eyes of the young lord that Nikimi spoke of, sad eyes, and deep secrets…_how would Koinu feel if Inuyasha and I hated each other? How does any child feel when its parents fight so much?_ She shook her head, clearing it, and asked, quietly, "Why doesn't this Shishi-sama live with his father?"

Nikimi's answer was swift and her tone dark. Kagome realized swiftly that the subject was one of some strange suspicion or pain. "He's dead."

As Nikimi's words hit home she remembered Shimofuri's eyes again and a thought passed through her mind, and once there she couldn't get it to leave her: _Taikokajin had her mate, her pup's father, killed…no wonder he won't drop his father's name…_

* * *

The forest thickened around them, like a murderer's grip tightening over the throat of his victim. The shadows were deep and dark enough that when Shimofuri turned his eyes in any direction light glinted—shining red—from the back of his eyes, from the retinas. When Inuyasha's eyes did the same they flashed a a fiery gold, so bright that the hanyou seemed possessed in some way, whether it was by an outside force or by his own inner strength and will was anyone guess. 

They had traveled steadily for hours, into the evening now, in utter silence. Shimofuri wished, idly, that he could hear Inuyasha's rendition of the legends that surrounded his name—but he sensed that the hanyou wasn't comfortable with him…and asking such a thing was, he thought, childish. Yet, with nothing but his thoughts to entertain him, Shimofuri found his mood growing steadily darker—like the very shadows aging and maturing around them.

He wondered what his mother was doing. Was she busy tearing away their cousin's pup from his human mate? He wondered if they were too late to save Inuyasha's human mate from Garou's strange and evil powers. And, was Tsukiyume still alive at all? Was she a soulless husk? Unbidden, the inuyoukai heir saw his sister's wide, innocent and gorgeous brown eyes shining from within his memories…and then she became a slumped shell, her eyes half closed in a deathly lethargy, the light in her eyes vanished. He saw—like Inuyasha's when he was stricken by failure at Taikokajin's unfair deceit—his half-sister's ears slump lifelessly against her shining black hair.

Before he'd realized that he'd done it, Shimofuri heaved a light sigh of worry and pain, and instantly Inuyasha whirled on him, golden eyes flashing. "Shush!" he hissed, and Shimofuri realized that they had come to the border between the Middle Lands and the Western Lands.

Both travelers could feel the tingling of their senses as they slowed, passing through the border. It was a sensation generated by the sudden shift of youkai powers. It was particularly powerful on this border because they were passing from a territory ruled by a female's aura, and about to enter the lands owned by a much younger, fiercer spirit.

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head, tightly. The muscles of his jaw tightened. He knew the feeling of his brother's soul as it washed over him—and the soul knew _him_ too. It caressed him, tried to whisper into his ears. Taikokajin's lands had never affected him so. He had passed into them—had it only been one night ago?—from the lands that he and Kagome claimed as their own, a narrow strip further east that was unclaimed by the dog demon rulers. Then there had only been the tingling knowledge of passing through the barrier, from lord-less lands into demon-possessed earth. Inuyasha generally hadn't had such a strong reaction to the border's spirit, but now, he supposed, Sesshomaru had set an ever eager watch out for him, just in case.

He glanced once to Shimofuri, looking for a similar reaction—and saw nothing. The young dog demon was stoic and cold, much like the master of the lands that they had just crossed into.

The song of Sesshomaru's demonic spirit stroked Inuyasha for several long minutes as they plodded onward, all the while Inuyasha scowled deeply, trying to force his senses to either become numb to it or to banish his brother's influence from him completely. Eventually one or the other worked and the tingling chills and the feather light touches to his body ceased.

Above them, in the black, velvet blanket of the sky, the stars shone extra brightly. The moon was a thin sliver, like a claw, glowing silver in the night sky.

Inuyasha looked toward it with a mixture of worry and irritation. I've come, Sesshomaru you old bastard, and there's not a damn thing either of us can do about it.

* * *

Endnote: THANK YOU ALL! I must hurry with this, but as always I am grateful to EVERYONE that took the time to drop me a line...Lord knows with how lazy I've gotten in these weeks before graduation if my guilty conscience didn't make me post I'd have stopped ages ago...so thank you! 

_**Zoderella, slummyreddragon, ItaiandChihiro4Ever**_ (be as long as you want! Don't let anyone stop you!), _**FanstasyFreak**_ (you're right about the pup, I agree...(sniggles) plans are already spinning the wheels in my head...) _**The Moonless Night**_ (I'll look forward to those drawings!) _**orangepencils, angelpup, Tiamath**_ (thank you...I have been curious about hyenas myself, I don't know how they're classified, I mean they're carnivores, but they're so weird...(shakes head)...) _**Ryoko Metallium**_ (glad to please!) _**Heather**_ (lol,Pinky is NOT popular is she?) _**sarah, InuYasha'sGirl KagomeSango**_(Hey there!(winks) Thank you!), _**Simonkal of Inyu**_(lol! I have not yet decided how bad Pinky will get...she may escape this story alive, she may even partly redeem herself, her character is strange...but then again, I really like Shimo-chan myself (I have a gily crush on my own character! big blushes!) and seeing him as Lord Shimofuri-sama makes me happy...(smirks) I'm like thinking of including him in later stories or in one-shots in the distant future...), _**SerenaClearwater**_ (You bring up an interesting point...I have plans that may or may not come through involving Tsukiyume and no, I've never planned on her being bad. I'll hint a little here: read Garou's complaints involving her soul. He compares her to Kagome a little...unless I cut that paragraph out in editing? (blinks) I hope not...but yes...she may become very likeable just like her big brother.), _**Shikou **_(I would love that! Hey...draw my uberishly sweet Shimo-chan too! (squees!) If it's not trubling you at all...I'm jsut squeeing over the thought...Thank you!), _**kirarakitty**_( I made both Koinu in his half/quarter-demon form with dog ears and all at his birth on purpose. But goodness, you're sharp. You'll be keeping me on my toes...(snickers) I did it on purpose b/c in the third movie (that I had the privelage of seeing a few months ago) we get to see the past when Inuyasha was born, on the night of the new moon--just as Koinu was conceived under and just as he was also born under--Inuyasha as a baby (and my sisters and I all squeed together for a whole minute when we saw him crying grouchily) was golden-eyed and with white dog ears...even tho it was a new moon. Basing Koinu off that example I made him the same way...hope that makes sense...), _**NefCanuck**_ (Thank you! I did try, I think, to make sure Koinu was special in that scene, not just a baby, but a physical extension of their devotion to one another's survival. So I'm glad to hear I did my job well! (grins)), _**DreamLily**_ (I'm not quite sure what a beta is...Is it like an editor? If so I'm up for that...(grins) thank you!)


	19. Tsukiyume Awakens

**Disclaimer:** Nope, I didn't when I started and I still don't...

**A/N:** Well, let's see...this chapter was actually too long so I cut it off (it turned out to be 11 pages in word when I cut it, which is good, but before it was like going to be 14 or so and I didn't want to feel rushed...also that allows a preview for all of you this time!) **Warning:** rape-ish situation...doesn't actually happen but the insinuation of the possibility that it COULD have happened to poor Tsuki is there...Garou's not very nice of course...the rest I think speaks for itself. Go on and enjoy...my thanks at the end...is it just me or are there fewer reviewers out there now? Not for this story I mean but like I've had only four or five reviews on my other stories...maybe you guys are biting me for my like...what was it? three weeks of laziness...hehe, sorry...anyway, on with the chapter.

**

* * *

****Tsukiyume Awakens**

_Awareness returned slowly, like the sun rising over the mountains, pushing the reluctant shadow of night away. Her voice came to her, and her first instinct was to make a sound, to call for help, she didn't know from who she expected the help to come or why she felt she was in danger in the first place, but she couldn't deny that that was what she felt._

_Weakly, she moaned, and found that her own voice was a stranger to her. _

_Other senses returned, just as slowly as simple consciousness had come. Why did her body, her limbs, all feel so heavy? Why did she feel so cold? It was so freezing that she didn't even shiver—her body had sunk below even that instinctive ability. When she tried to breathe in sharply her lungs seemed to seize up, fighting her. _

_Panic flared within her chest, a caged bird, fluttering, trying to escape. _

_Her eyes snapped open, deep brown, flickering with an intelligence that was, at the moment, very dull…_

_A blue sky greeted her, darkening—she saw pinks and purples on one side of her view of the world. The fireworks at the end of the day, calling the sun home. The sight calmed her, and slowly, very slowly, she began to remember everything. _

_The shrine that she had walked all day over the road in the company of her older brother to reach, the offerings of rice cakes tucked away with a few precious gold coins in a little silken pouch. Her brother's face swam before her mind's eye, his gray-blue long hair tied high on his head, in the style that a samurai might use—he was trying to pass as one of the human warriors. Yes, that was right: she had been wearing black mourning robes, covering herself from head to toe, to disguise her partially inhuman characteristics. And her brother…she remembered his gentle, loving smile, his warm, guiding hand tugging on her own, the pale paint he had used to hide his turquoise inuyoukai crests on his cheeks. _

_If she closed her eyes again and focused on these misty, dim memories, she could still scent the incense burning around the alter she had erected for her father in his temple…the monks had thrown her curious glances, perhaps sensing vaguely, that she wasn't completely human, or perhaps their eyes lingered on her tall, stoic older brother who waited for her patiently at the gates. She'd heeded none of them any mind, had merely prayed to her father's spirit, wishing that he guide her troubled heart, that he soothe her brother's unhappiness…that, if he could, he should bestow love from beyond the grave onto their mother's heart._

_And then she remembered nothing but fear, and a scent. The scent of a predator that had come for her, descended in a storm of shadows. _

_There was nothing beyond that, nothing but the freezing, chilled darkness of her own innermost mind. _

_As she inhaled again this time, and tried opening her eyes again, her panic returned, sharp and overpowering this time. She made a frightened, terrified sound, a little squeak of helplessness to herself. She'd never been stoic like her brother, like their mother. She was a bundle of nerves, of weakness, though her mother had never really been bothered by it—her heir was all she had wished for, why should she press her daughter to be the same? Yet she had always worried about failing them all somehow—and now she was sure she already had. Her capture was shame enough, but to be so frightened of what might be coming, death surely, was unthinkable. _

**I will not shame my family or my clan; I will die bravely.**

_She tightened her small-clawed fists, pressed them into the chilled grass at either side of her. Her heart was beating, pulsing more with each second; her body was warming with each breath, one after another. It was sheer will that pushed her up into a sitting position. She blinked fearfully at her surroundings, fighting the newly born shivers that were rushing through her revived body. _

_It was a wide meadow, a swathe of mostly snow-less grass. She smelled and heard water brushing the land somewhere to her right. She looked that way and saw the gray dullness of water; the sun had already ceased leaving its colored reflection on the lake's surface. Now it was like a giant blot of ink. She gazed away from it, shivering despite herself. _

_Her eyes landed on a wolf—a large wolf!—curled with his back to her, sleeping apparently. As she tried to scent it, him actually, she realized that he was not a wolf, despite what he looked like. He was something else, a thing she had never scented before…her blood froze._

**I have scented him before! The thing, the shadow that came for me in the temple shrine…**

_She jumped to her feet, thinking of nothing but a mad dash for escape—only to find herself tumbling as her feet gave way underneath her. Pain afflicted her still half-numbed and utterly confused nerves. She realized that she had a mouthful of grass in her mouth; she spat it out disgustedly and weakly tried to regain her breath. _

_A look over her shoulder silenced her breathing altogether. _

_The wolf-thing was no longer a wolf. Now he strolled toward her wearing an ugly, foul scented cloak. His deep brown eyes—too much like hers—bored into her, and she didn't miss the sadistic gleam within them. When he grinned it was actually closer to a snarl of malice, she wanted to scream but her lungs refused to work. Her body stiffened instinctually, but she found she couldn't move…_

_He reached her, knelt nearby, and reached out with one massive, grotesquely powerful hand. His claws looked horribly filthy, gray like fungus on a corpse. She flinched when she felt his hot touch on her spine, the sandpaper of his skin scratching her, although she sensed that he wasn't actually trying to harm her…yet._

_She realized, with a gasping cry of despair, that she was wearing only her innermost robe, and that the beastly man had tugged it down to expose her neck and upper back, allowing him to touch her, flesh on flesh. Her hands gripped the ground, her own claws tearing through soil and grass alike. Her skin crawled with so much revulsion that she thought she might scream, though her lungs refused to work properly. She gasped for air, blubbering like a tiny child. _

_His terrible hand brushed over her, came to her right shoulder, the one closest to him, and gripped her, hard. She cried out, and the first tears slipped free of her eyes, despite her promise of valor from moments ago. _

_The cold of the grass and earth beneath her bit into her back as the beast-man rolled her over so that she lied as she had when she'd first woken: facing the darkening skies. She saw his ugly face easily now, the thick, bulbous nose, the bald, greasy skin from thousands of years of hydrophobia. The eyes were the worst; they stared at her as if she were an ant under a magnifying glass, a mouse caught in a trap. She knew that no matter what she did there would be no mercy from such a beast. _

_She held herself rigid and bit the insides of her cheeks, forcing herself to be honorable. **Whatever he may do to my body, I shan't taint my soul with shame, I won't cry out…**_

_His mouth screwed up into a sneer, showing yellowed teeth that she thought might've been chipped from excessive years of use. "Bitch!" he spat at her, his spittle landed on her bare shoulder, so hot it was scalding. She winced, but bit her tongue, remaining completely silent. _

_His laughter was harsh and grating on her ears. She felt them fold downward against her hair, felt her muscles shivering despite how hard she tried to silence them. _

"_You are pathetic!" he taunted. She felt his rough touch move over her chest, tugging at her thin robe roughly. Though she had squeezed her eyes shut against the sight of him, she could still feel the sudden breeze of chilled air against her exposed breasts. Fear welled up inside her, and she thought that unless she screamed, found some release for it, she would surely vomit. _

_The beast above her made a growling noise, thick with irritation, "You are hardly more than a child!"_

_That much was true. In human years she supposed she should long since have been a woman, still young, but likely married and expecting her first children. In demon years she was still a child—a young adolescent. In hanyou years, for half demons aged completely on their own terms, she was perhaps a barely passable young woman; her shape was small, unpronounced. She prayed that her youth might save her such a sickening torture as rape…but she doubted it. _

_**Just kill me…** she begged silently. _

_But she had no such luck; her pleading went unanswered. _

_The blazing, painful touch came again, and she flinched immediately at it, her instinct rising anew, demanding that she fight him, but though her will was strong her limbs were heavy and cold once more—she was unable to move. The beast's hand remained where he'd placed it—thumb and pinky fingers resting just beneath her small breasts, the other fingers inhabited the valley cleft between them. _

_Her helplessness made her fear and instinct fade and turn just as quickly into despair. Tears welled up inside her eyes, started to overflow silently, spilling out the corners and rolling away, warm against her skin. Still more to her shame a sob rose as well, her chest heaved as she gave in, the heavy, hot hand on her skin remained were the wolf-man had placed it. _

_And then she felt a stab of pain where his middle finger rested, right between her breasts. Her eyes snapped wide and she tried to flinch away, whimpering weakly…yet movement was still impossible, and a moment after the pain began it ceased abruptly. She craned her head and rolled her eyes, trying to see what he had done to her, but she couldn't…_

_The man removed his hand, snarling under his breath, muttering horrible curses at her, though with only a passing hatred. She detected, dimly, a note of triumph within his voice. _

_Her breath was shallow as he walked away…and slowly she began to feel the relief wash over her—she was not dead, she was not raped…had her tears worked? What had he done to her…? She tried to stir but still her limbs refused to work. Despair threatened again but she withheld it. _

_Swallowing frantically, she asked toward the sky, her voice wavering painfully, "What…what…"_

"_Close your mouth, miserable weak bitch. I wouldn't touch you for pleasure in a million years—you're not worth that…" she heard him shift, move closer to her, and she cringed, fearing that he might announce that a million years had in fact passed and that he could hurt her in just the way she feared…but he short of her by several feet, snarling, low in his throat. _

"_Tell me your name—I command it." _

_The place that had hurt before, when he'd laid his terrible hand over her in such a delicate spot, a spot that was supposed to be hers and hers alone to share, burned anew. The pain was so sharp and sudden that, although she bit her tongue in desperation, she cried out with it—and mid way through the cry her throat seemed to be under someone else's control. The muscles worked, her tongue flicked, her lips shaped the sounds that emerged from her throat, and she spoke. _

"_My name is Tsukiyume." _

_There came one brief, satisfied grunting laugh from the beast before he rose his deep voice again, growling out his next command: "Tell me you are a miserable, worthless and cowardly bitch. I command it." _

_Once again the pain came, though this time she fought the urge to cry out. Her throat wrenched against her will, strangled, alien sounds rushed out of her, until she could no longer withstand the pain and gave in. "I am a miserable, worthless and cowardly bitch." _

_The laughter was longer, harder now, triumphant. "Sleep, bitch, I command it." _

_Immediately the pain resumed, tormenting her. Tsuki writhed under it, at first choking back her cries, and then, finally, screaming with them until, she felt her energy draining away. Her limbs turning heavier and heavier. The world darkened swiftly, though she knew, faintly, that it was not the sun that was going out, but her instead. When the darkness finally stole over her completely, she was thankful…the pain ceased. _

_Tsukiyume slept_.

* * *

The water for the bath took some time to warm during which Nikimi chatted with Kagome amiably. Kagome learned that Nikimi considered herself apart of a long line of servants to inuyoukai lords. Her father and grandfather had all been highly trusted guards under Taikokajin's rule, yet legends from her great-grandmother told of Koshoshiro, Taikokajin's father. Nikimi's sister and brother had all been sent to serve under different inuyoukai lords and ladies, but it had been Nikimi's honor to stay in her Lady's service. 

"Where did your brother and sister go?" Kagome wondered absently as Nikimi tested the water for the hundredth time—and this time found it suitable.

"My brother went to serve one of Lady Taikokajin's younger brothers not far from here. My sister chose to enter the service of a different family completely—she waits on the inuyoukai lord of the western lands, Lord Sesshomaru is his name…" she glanced cautiously to Kagome, "I believe that your son would call Lord Sesshomaru his uncle, am I wrong?"

"No, you're right." Kagome sighed, heavily. Just the mere mentioning of Inuyasha's older half-brother was enough to make her feel shaky with exhaustion. "Sesshomaru isn't very…" she struggled for the right word, "_Pleasant?"_ she scowled, cuddling Koinu closer instinctively.

Nikimi laughed a little, stepping away from the bath. "I suppose you wouldn't think so highly of him." She smiled awkwardly at the young mother, "But my sister has never found quarrel with Lord Sesshomaru's habits. He is a hospitable ruler." She gestured to the now steaming bathwater, "You bath awaits you, Lady Inuyasha." She bowed, "Would you wish me to fetch you bath oils and clean robes for you?"

Kagome nodded, feeling intensely grateful. "If it's not any trouble…"

Nikimi shook her head immediately, "Just hurry, my lady, and bathe—before the water grows cold again!" she laughed as she walked out of the small, steamy room, sliding the screened door shut behind her.

The bathroom (and literally, that's what it was!) was brightly colored. The walls were yellow and pink, seemingly cherry blossoms, Kagome thought. She lingered, enjoying the moist air, and the prettily painted and decorated walls—the pink-hued lamps that hung down from the ceiling—before letting Koinu down out of her arms and onto the floor. He squealed at the sudden opportunity to explore, and eagerly set out to do just that. His puppy's ears twittered back and forth in open curiosity.

With one watchful eye on what her crawling son was up to, Kagome stripped off her clothes gingerly, and left them beside the door. Beside the tub Kagome easily found several towels, waiting to be used. She tried to ignore the instinctual discomfort that came with being naked in a foreign place, and silently wished she knew Inuyasha were nearby…

Koinu had crawled to where her dirty clothes were piled beside the door. She laughed at the sight of her son grabbing up tiny fistfuls of her clothing and stuffing them into his mouth. To complete the picture the pup began making chewing motions, his little jaw working up and down. When his eyes closed, Kagome realized that the pup was taking in her scent by sucking on the clothes, as bizarre as that was to her…she shook her head in silent astonishment. _So like your father…_

How many times had she caught Inuyasha sniffing her or scenting something that belonged to her? Time and time again she knew Inuyasha worked through his nose without even realizing it. Dog demons were instinctually running on their olfactory senses.

The realization made her sad for a moment. What if Inuyasha didn't return? What if it was a scheme, sending the hanyou on a bogus mission with Shimofuri at his side as a hostage, only for the hostage to transform into an assassin? The thought made her shudder with fear, praying silently that Inuyasha would remain tense, that his senses would remain alert. _Trust no one, Inuyasha…_when her eyes drifted to Koinu, who pulled a different article of clothing out to suckle and chew on by this time, she amended the thought: _Trust no one both of you. Both father and son._

The light resounding echo of footsteps in the hallway made Kagome tense as she was snapped back into the present and found herself standing over Koinu, smiling down at him, completely naked…hurriedly she scooped up her little son, stripped off his still clean cloth diaper and climbed into the tub with the pup clutched to her chest. He coed at her abrupt closeness, flesh to flesh, and immediately buried his nose and lips into her neck. His cooing rumbled on against her as the screen door slid open.

It was Nikimi of course. She smiled at Kagome, genuinely, and closed the door swiftly behind her to preserve the room's warmth. In her arms she carried a bundle of robes, undergarments, towels, and a few glass vials full of shampoos, perfumes, and oils. She walked to the tub and bowed, setting the goods at the foot of the tub.

"I brought everything for you, Lady Inuyasha…" but abruptly she frowned and made a huffing sound, displeased with herself, "But stupid me—I forgot the pup." Her eyes locked onto the aforementioned child and shone with amusement. "He's _really_ adorable…" she sighed, "He'll probably grow up and be a terrible heartbreaker…"

Kagome laughed, "I know his father was." She smirked.

"Well there's no way I'm going to let him go around after a fine bath in just his skivvies…" she frowned again, her hands went to her hips, "I'll be back in a few seconds Lady Inuyasha, my apologies." She bowed once and was gone before Kagome could even say as much as 'Thank you!'.

Alone again Kagome lowered Koinu into the bathwater, slowly, so as not to alarm him. Rather, it had the contrary effect. The pup splashed her immediately and squealed in sheer glee. He remembered water as well as bath times of the past. Unlike cat demons, inuyoukai generally held no fear of water. Koinu, being more than half human as well, was untroubled by it—except for when it was poured over his head, and unfortunately that was what bath times usually called for.

Kagome cupped a few scoops of water and dribbled them carefully over Koinu's little silver-furred head, and the pup whimpered uncertainly. He splashed at her hands when she dipped down again to draw up more water for him. Soon the pup was openly whimpering, his tiny white dog-ears flicked backward against his flattened mop of silvered hair, his lower lip protruded threateningly.

"Uh oh, no you don't Koinu…" Kagome sighed, resorting to tickling him when the pup's whimpering began to rise into a cry. The pup abandoned his pouting and squirmed desperately in his mother's grip, squealing and piercing the warm bath air with baby laughter.

Through it Kagome didn't hear the door slide open, didn't hear the echo of footsteps in the hallway.

"Lady…Inuyasha?" came a hesitant woman's voice from the doorway.

Kagome stopped her torture of the pup and twisted gingerly around to see who it was at the door—for the voice was clearly not Nikimi's. "Hello…?" she called, trying to keep her nervousness out of her voice.

The woman standing just inside the door was a wiry thin woman, dressed in a pink-brown kimono that only went to about her mid-calf. The obi was white. Her face was pleasant, though not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination. She was far older than Nikimi had been. "Your bath is going well?" inquired the strange maid, her voice darker and gravelly in comparison with Nikimi's open, pleasant sound.

"Yes, thank you…?"

"My name is Momo." The maid bowed, "And you are my lady Taikokajin's cousin Inuyasha's mate, correct?"

Kagome nodded slowly, taking in this new presence with a now wary expression. _Momo? Where have I heard that name before…?_

"Good, good!" Momo cleared her throat, carefully, and Kagome knew she immediately wouldn't like whatever it was that she was about to hear, "Your child? You're bathing with your child?" she frowned, "How can you ever get clean with a pup screaming at your breast?"

Kagome tried to restrain the burning blush that stole over her cheeks. "I'm fine…"

"Nonsense! I'll take him to be bathed and dressed separately. You'll likely hardly recognize the little imp when he returns to you!" though the maid's words were said in a tone that seemingly indicated pleasantness, Kagome felt suddenly as if Momo had actually said _I place a curse upon your head, may your nights be sleepless and your children sickly. _

She shuddered and held Koinu closer to her. Deliberately, she turned her eyes completely from Momo at the door, letting the maid see only the back of her skull and the blue-eyed, white-eared pup as he stared at the maid innocently over his mother's shoulder.

"I don't want to put you to any trouble at all…" she muttered quickly.

"No, no…it's no trouble! Lady Taikokajin has taken you as a guest in her home. To refuse would be a shame, you dishonor my lady's hospitality!"

Kagome's jaw tightened. "Taikokajin didn't order a separate bath for my son, I don't see why it should bother her that I wish to bathe with him, and to be the one that bathes him."

"But my lady—" Momo's words were interrupted and cut off by Nikimi's footsteps reverberating off the walls of the hallway.

"Momo? What are you doing?"

"Lady Taikokajin sent me to check up on Lady Inuyasha and her little son." though Kagome saw none of the two maids interactions with each other, she remembered at that moment why the name Momo struck a chord within her…_when I overheard the guard and a different maid speaking they said Momo was Taikokajin's favored maid as of late…_she stiffened, realizing that it was likely this maid had been sent to lay her hands on the pup and bring him straight back to the pink-eyed bitch.

"And she found out that I am fine, as is Koinu—and she was just leaving." Kagome hissed over her shoulder. The silence that followed immediately afterwards was a sure sign that Momo was thoroughly insulted by Kagome's none-too-subtle hint.

"Yes, if you will excuse me, Nikimi…" Momo's tread disappeared until it was only a memory running down the halls.

Nikimi's soft-footed gait entered the room and the young maid bowed beside the tub. "I have found the perfect thing for the pup to wear, Lady Inuyasha!" she exclaimed, and lifted the tiny set of robes up for Kagome to inspect. They were bright red like freshly oxygenated blood, like fire burning hot, a dawn or a sunset at its most brilliant, like Inuyasha's fire rat robes…

Kagome grinned. "Wow! I'm impressed!"

* * *

A bulky, heavily armored man knelt on one knee before the carefully, delicately seated inuyoukai woman before him. Swathed in her usual luxuriant robes, Taikokajin looked every bit the part of a reigning goddess. Her pink eyes glimmered with a sharp, conniving, cruel intelligence. Her bright hair—almost closer to pure white like snow rather than the silver that the rest of her close genetic family bore—was pinned high in a manner that human women in high courts used to signify their royal, regal ranking. She'd chosen this style to assure that the man before her—an arrogant but loyal samurai—saw her as intensely beautiful and not alien in any way except for the turquoise marks on her cheeks and the sharpness of her ears. 

"Lady Taikokajin." He muttered her name gruffly, his voice gravelly, though that was normal for this man.

She nodded to him once, "You may face me, Kentaro." She waited while he rose to his feet, his bearing stiff and uncomfortable. In the world of mortal humans, from which he only rarely ventured out from, women were porcelain dolls. They painted their faces white and their lips bright red, outlined their eyebrows in charcoal. They wore fancy robes and trinkets in their hair. Those were all normal things, and many of them were things Taikokajin did already. She wore fabulous robes of lavender and obis of bright white; her face was already pale enough to have been painted though she left her lips colorless, and her hair was up regally.

But that was where the similarity ended. Taikokajin might've physically appeared to be an alarmingly pink-eyed human woman with strange steaks on her face at first glance, but her bearing, and her behavior, made her true identity unmistakable. Only a demon woman could rule as Taikokajin so clearly did. No human woman would order the samurai about, nor would she have commanded his respect—no matter how beautiful she was.

Yet at the same time the samurai could've loved and fought for the beautiful human porcelain doll. He wouldn't have likely done the same for Taikokajin simply because he understood her ruthlessness. Demons didn't, on the whole, scare him any longer. And yet, female demons, especially those with great power, still managed to scare the samurai witless. He couldn't fathom their mysteries, what made them so entirely different from the same gender in human women…after all; male demons were frequently almost the same as any mortal man…

"What news have you of the hanyou and my son?" she barked, pink eyes narrowed critically.

Kentaro continued to stand carefully at attention, "Lady Taikokajin, I have spied their general direction—it is west. They head into the Western Lands."

Taikokajin looked as if she might doubt him. Kentaro sweated profusely for several seconds, praying that she see that he had simply been the messenger, and what left his lips was the truth as far as he had known and seen it. Soon enough he breathed in relief as the pink gaze lightened and she sighed, pale lips pursing.

"The Western Lands?" she scowled for a brief moment. That was another thing that still unnerved the samurai. Taikokajin in particular, was full of emotion. Few demons wasted time expressing such things—it was perceived as weakness. Yet Taikokajin did it anyway. Kentaro suspected that it made her a poor ruler. Her son, when he replaced her, would be better…

Abruptly she looked up, her gaze pinning him, sternly. "I need you to ride straight by the fastest roads to my brother's castle grounds. Tell Sasugainu Koshoshiro that he must fly immediately to Lord Sesshomaru Inutaisho's palace with these instructions: Kill Inuyasha."

Kentaro blinked, rapidly struggling to remember her instructions. "I am to tell your brother, Lord Sasugainu, that he must go to Lord Sesshomaru and tell him to kill…" his voice died as he recognized the name and the suddenly obvious alliteration to a famous individual by Taikokajin's failing to mention a last name. _Kill Inuyasha…_he hadn't even known that the inuhanyou of the legends was real! He stared in shocked silence at the demon woman before him, not seeing the way her pink eyes clouded with rising disgust and anger.

"Did you not hear what I said, Kentaro?" she growled, sarcastically.

He shook himself into wakefulness, regaining his voice at the same time, "Inuyasha, you say, kill Inuyasha? Is this _the_ Inuyasha of the legends? The one that defeated Menomaru and Kaguya and Ryokotsusei and Naraku…?"

Taikokajin's eyes were narrowed into slits of sudden hated. "The same, you idiot." She snapped. One delicate but cruelly clawed hand pointed toward the doors, "Now, leave me and ride fast and hard until you reach my brother. _Go!"_ _Yes, go, mortal man, before I strike you down dead…and before Shimofuri and Inuyasha reach Sesshomaru themselves. _

When she looked up again she saw that Kentaro had indeed left her, and swiftly just as she'd wished. She nodded a little in approval silently. _Good, the foolish human knows when to obey…now if only I could trust my son to do as I command too…_

* * *

_Endnotes:_ I'm gonna get this done quick cuz I have other stuff I need to do... 

BIG thank yous to ALL reviewers! _**SerenaClearwater**_ (best part of the third movie was IY as a baby briefly seen crying...I wish I could watch it again but the site that had it I think went down. And appearances are tough to keep straight, I take notes to make sure I'm consistent...but I do know it's tough!) _**Yami Chikara**_ (sniggles) _**slummyreddragon Zoderella ItaiandChihiro4Ever, TheDarkAngel101**_ (perfectly okay) _**NefCanuck orangepencils**_ (yeah, this is my biggest review collecting story (shakes her head) astounds me everytime!) _**Heather Shikou**_ (don't worry, take your time) _**inuyasha'sbabe07**_ (They're not trivial, keeps me on my toes! Kay: Sesshy and Rin will likely make an appearance in the next chapter, maybe more. They have a delicate back story that I shall expose, I'll say one thing for that backstory: it's not good for IY/Sesshy relations...and Myoga...You caught me, I've rather forgotten about him. He is likely to appear later in my other story "Women In Black." here I haven't found a place for him...) _**InuYasha'sGirl KagomeSango**_ (I don't think so, but it makes sense no?(grins)) Lena17, _**The Moonless Night**_ (yes, sesshy and Rin will appear in the next chapter...and I kept your review in my mailbox so that I can look back at your one-shot description (grins) Thank you!) _**Simonkal of Inyu**_ (yes, she's still pretty normal, but later chapters Kagome is going to weaken and suffer a bit...but you're right about her and the hugeness of her soul, it's gonna be the only thing that saves her...) _**Prophet WolfStar**_ (LOL! I'm glad to know that I can give you something to talk about (sniggles) Thank you! Raven is it?) _**Tiamath**_ (yes, it wa,s good memory. (grins) but Shimo-chan wasn't saying Sesshy wouldn't run into them or care, he said that with himself beside Inuyasha Sesshomaru would see that it was a diplomatic mission, not a war party.) _**kirarakitty, andarial,**_ and_**Rinelwin **_Preview time!

_Shimofuri turned completely then to face the hanyou. "We must seek his permission, Inuyasha, surely you are aware that it would be rude to just walk across and through his lands without making ourselves fully known and explained." The gray-eyed demon nodded lightly, "It makes perfect sense to go and speak with Sesshomaru."_

_Inuyasha snorted, "Feh! Only if you want him to ram Tokijin up your ass kid!"_

Until next time!


	20. Mother's Wishes

**Disclaimer:** Nope...

**A/N:** Sorry guys I HAVE to go...but I HAD to post this for you...I haven't read it at all, but I HAD to do it for you...Tomorrow I graduate officially, the ceremony with caps and gowns and all...panic time panic time...but I wrote this up pretty much today and now it's 2 AM and I have to be up by 11 tomorrow so I gotta sleep...no review thanks at the end, I just hope this chapter's good enough...but for now: THANK YOU EVERYONE! OVER 350 REVIEWS! YOU GUYS RULE! I hope you enjoy...you're going to hate two people: Taikokajin(hehe) and me b/c there's a cliffie halfway through...enjoy!

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* * *

****Mother's Wishes**

_A warm touch welcomed her back to the world, and Tsukiyume moaned. Her limbs were weak and heavy; her body cold like a block of ice. She tried faintly to wiggle her fingers, to lift her tiny hand up and touch the warmth that grazed her forehead, that caressed her cheek so gently…her hands were too heavy, her mind too fuzzy with a thick disorientation. Yet her emotions remained alive, vibrantly so, and Tsukiyume whimpered with the sudden fear that swamped her senses, that whispered in her ears that she wasn't safe…_

_"Mother…?" she whispered through her thick, cold lips, and tried to open her eyes, to blink up at whatever creature was so sweetly, so warmly, touching her face. It could be none other than her mother or her older brother, they were the only creatures in her world that had ever bothered to so much as think about her as anything short of a half-demon—a despicable half-breed that walked the earth only as a cruse, an abhorrent mixing of the species…the tears that trickled from the corners pf her eyes were cold, not warm._

_The warmth of the loving touch trailed over to her cheeks, swiped the tears away. "You shouldn't cry little 'Yume…you're too beautiful to cry."_

_She blinked and tried to see the fingers of this mysterious—male—person who so lovingly attended her, but there was nothing but darkness…**Am I blind?**_

_The rumble of a chuckle drew her fear away, and the warm fingers returned, touching her chin and shifting her face gently to one direction. It was like her mother had once done when she was nothing but a pup, trying to search her young daughter's face for some kind of stain that needed to be cleaned away. Tsukiyume trembled fearfully as another thought came to her, filling her with dread: **someone might also do that to force me to kiss him…**_

_The memory of the beast that had pinned her, taken control of her, returned suddenly and she cried out, a flush of energy she didn't know she had making Tsuki roll and curl up into a fetal position, shivering. The tears came, full of terror and shame, but she could do nothing to make them stop._

_The presence still had not left, and still hadn't made any advances that had harmed her…why didn't he speak? Why didn't he taunt her for her sobbing, for her tears? Dimly, through her muddled, confused senses, she searched for the scent of this thing's presence: grass, mud, water from the lake, pollen…distantly the beast man's stink…but nothing else reached her, nothing but her own scent._

**_Did I dream the warm fingers? That touch?_**

_She blinked again, willing her eyes to see—and finally she saw the shining shimmer of the lake water that she knew she had been nearby when the beast had attacked her. When she looked up into the sky she made out a nearly full moon and the distant glimmer of the stars watching over her. Her gaze lingered on the bright white of the moon…horror swept through her._

_**A full moon? But that would mean I've been lying here sleeping a whole month away!** A new thought followed fast on the heels of the first one, making her tremble: **I'll be human again soon!**_

_Human meant being as weak as a lamb…_

_A touch brushed against her shoulder, warm and gentle. She recognized it now, felt a shiver pass through her, a strange calm. **Whether I'm dreaming it or not I don't care, it's comforting to believe that there's someone I know here.**_

_"Shimofuri!" she hissed, her voice weak. She tried to drag her hands up to touch him, to hug him, to thank him for coming to rescue her—even if she was only dreaming it somehow…but her body was still so cold and heavy…_

_There came a small chuckling, gentle and warm as his touch was. "I'm sorry Tsukiyume, but I'm not your brother."_

_She froze, a mixture of fear and surprise mingling inside her. "Then who…?" no one else would be so kind to her, no one else saw her as anything but an abomination. Even the maids and guards of her mother's palace sometimes risked long curious gazes at her flowing black hair which was so strangely capped by her two, white, pointed dog ears. Though they were kind to her she suspected that at once they also feared her, thought of her as if she were possessed…hanyous were unpredictable things, prone to sudden change, abrupt emotions and the terrifying possibility that they might just become enraged enough to allow their youkai blood and power to overwhelm their sane minds…_

_The man—she suspected he was not a demon for how gentle and caring he was—sighed sadly and his warm fingers strayed over her face again, seemingly feeling her features. "I have only seen you briefly. I know you have a beautiful face—you got it from your mother I suspect. But your eyes, child—those, those are **mine.**" As he spoke his fingers danced over her cheeks, dashed across her forehead with the utmost care, and then, slowly, cautiously, circled around her eyes as she closed them, letting him feel the smoothness of her brow and eyelids and lashes._

_She knew who he was suddenly, and though she knew it wasn't possible, the knowledge refused to be denied, refused to be buried. She voiced it with a trembling voice: "Father…?"_

_His fingers left her then and Tuskiyume opened her eyes again, sensing something that her eyes could not see, but her soul could. A shadow moved nearby, squatted at her side…when she closed her eyes again she saw his face clearly in her minds eye—and gasped. His eyes **were** just like hers, a deep brown with a tiny, barely visible ring of black like velvet around the pupils._

_She blinked when he spoke, losing the mental image. Her heart pounded in her chest…**I'm talking to my father's spirit…**_

_"When you came to the shrine, 'Yume, and were taken by the ancient beast…my soul was unable to rest. I have been searching for you, and now that I have found you…" he paused, and she sensed that he was elsewhere for a moment, listening to something she could never understand._

_Despite herself she felt tears spring into her eyes, her chest constricted, "Father, am I going to die at the hands of the beast that took me?"_

_The shadow kneeling beside her moved, his attention returning to her, "No, I shall see to that, child." His voice seemed to shake with conviction, and Tsuki shivered at it. Her body seemed to grow warmer, her heartbeat picked up in strength._

_"You shall sleep for now, the beast will never suspect. When the time comes…" his voice wavered, and she sensed his fear, his sadness, "I will see to it that your strength is returned. I will see to it that you have all that you will need to survive this…you and the others…"_

_"Others, Father? Do you mean Mother and Brother?"_

_She sensed his deep, somber attitude and a lingering hostility that she couldn't understand. "Yes, and one other…but, Daughter, you must do one thing for me in return."_

_"What is it?" she whispered, her chest constricting again. For the father she had never met she would unquestionably do anything…_

_"Depose your mother, Tsukiyume. You must place your half-brother and all that he thinks and does above your mother for me."_

_Tsuki was horrified. Taikokajin had loved her, nursed her, cuddled her, kept her warm and protected when no other could… "Father, how could you ask that of me?" but even as she asked that she trembled, suddenly remembering things her brother had whispered darkly about, of what he had once called their mother: Black Widow. She had always known that he believed his demon father's death was because Taikokajin had had him killed—just so she could have sole power over her young son and heir, Tsuki had assumed, just so Taikokajin wouldn't have to share power with any other…now suddenly, with her father's spirit beside her, she wondered if the same had been applied to her **human** father…_

_"It is far less than what she has done to me, Daughter." The now cold voice answered, and without a doubt Tsuki knew that while her human father had prayed and meditated, someone—Taikokajin herself perhaps?—had crept in and killed him. Considering that her father had been a militant monk Tsuki realized with a weak, choked gasp of pain, that it was likely his killer had been someone he trusted and never would have suspected would suddenly kill him…like a lover…_

_She swallowed her fear, her horror, and nodded through the darkness toward the shadow that crouched beside her, "I will do what you ask…" the tears came from nowhere and she choked on them, "I'm so sorry…"_

_"Shh…" he whispered, and through the dark she felt his comforting, soothing touch. She closed her eyes against his warm hand, cupped against her cheek…and for a moment she saw him as if she were living his memories: luxuriant cream robes as he walked through a garden she recognized as her mother's within the palace courtyard, the laughter in his eyes and that burst out of him clearly as he watched a very young, blue-black haired child running toward him, arms outstretched…and then she saw her mother's face, younger, less strained, staring after the dark-haired pup, laughing in the cream-robed monk's arms, her expression was lost, troubled…and her delicate, clawed hands rested on a slight protrusion of her abdomen where a tiny Tsukiyume rested, waiting to be born to a mother who had made certain that her father would never see her…_

_She blinked the images away from her mind's eye, trembling at this horrible truth she had never dared consider. The warmth of the spirit presence's touch was still on her cheek, still offering her some strange reserves of strength. Gratitude and regret filled her heart. "I'm so sorry, Father…"_

_"Don't be, Tsukiyume, our souls will meet again—**she** can do nothing to stop that. The same is true for your brother." The shadow beside her knelt, coming closer until its somehow warm, comforting darkness stole over the whole of her vision, covering the stars, the troubling full moon above…she felt a warm moisture on her forehead, the ghost's kiss somehow made real… "Live well, Daughter, be happy."_

_"Father!" she tried to fling her arms about him but she met nothing but air…the stars were clearly visible again, shimmering. A heaviness slipped into her. Made Tsuki close her eyes in exhaustion—but deep within her soul peace remained, filling her heart with the lingering comfort and gentle warmth of her father's soul._

_She slept deeply, her body drawing strength for a coming battle that she knew nothing of._

* * *

They traveled for close to a week without stops that lasted for more than an hour. Inuyasha found that he had grown soft somehow—or perhaps, he reluctantly considered, it was his human half that prevented him from keeping pace with the young inuyoukai heir. He was tired and slow to react. Tetsuseiga would likely be so heavy in his grip that it'd collapse and he'd be hugely embarrassed…

Also, a continuous worry gnawed at his insides. The natural instinct to protect one's mate and pup was a constant within him. If he _had_ slept while he traveled beside the pink bitch's heir he suspected that the constant nagging fear would drive him insane, waking him from otherwise sound sleeps, haunting his dreams. He worried that Kagome and Koinu were being tortured or starved or separated while without his protection and at the mercy of Taikokajin's honor. That honor was a thing he personally believed was nonexistent. But aside from that worry he also feared his brother's appearance and interference in their quest.

That fear was something Shimofuri actually _wanted._

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" Inuyasha had demanded not a day after they'd crossed the border of the Western Lands. Shimofuri was leading the way now and he'd come to a crossroads. Immediately the inuyoukai youth had started on the path that led in the direction of the middle of Sesshomaru's lands, towards his castle.

Shimofuri threw his cousin a bland look, unfazed. "I am following our desirec path, Inuyasha."

The hanyou snarled, flashing his fangs briefly, "Look kid," he snorted, "There's no way, over my dead body, that I'd _willingly_ walk that path you're on." He crossed his arms, indicating his stubbornness. "So you'd damn well better get your ass back over here, Shimo-cousin."

The young lord scowled lightly for a split second at Inuyasha's newest teasing nickname for him. But the expression vanished almost as fast as it had appeared. "Why is it that you are so hesitant?" the youth's voice was genuinely curious, there was no mocking within it.

"Because unlike you and that pink bitch you call Mother, my 'big brother' and I don't play well." He sneered, as if his aforementioned 'big brother' were there and returning the banter.

Shimofuri turned completely then to face the hanyou. "We must seek his permission, Inuyasha, surely you are aware that it would be rude to just walk across and through his lands without making ourselves fully known and explained." The gray-eyed demon nodded lightly, "It makes perfect sense to go and speak with Sesshomaru."

Inuyasha snorted, "Feh! Only if you want him to ram Tokijin up your ass kid!"

Shimofuri narrowed his eyes, reminding Inuyasha uncannily of the very devil they were currently speaking of. "He would not be so rude."

"You wanna bet on that one, Shimo-cousin?" Inuyasha chuckled sarcastically.

"If we do not make ourselves known we are trespassers." Shimofuri began, calmly, patiently, as if speaking to a child, "Then Sesshomaru really _will_ have cause to be justly angry. Trespassers are liable to be ripped to pieces." He pinned the hanyou with his gray eyes carefully, "Which, cousin, would you prefer?"

Inuyasha growled, "Feh! Fine Shimo-kid. You wanna get us killed, you go right ahead. But remember, I won't defend you when Sesshomaru plunges that sword of his down your throat…"

Thus they had traveled in the direction of Sesshomaru's palace, along the way they searched for signs of Garou. There was almost nothing to speak of, which was discouraging. Inuyasha often wondered if coming into the Western Lands was a good idea at all. It seemed to be doing nothing but making them stick their necks out, waiting for demon lords like Sesshomaru to come and snap them like twigs. Yet once committed he couldn't back down from it.

A week after passing over the border from the Middle Lands to the Western Lands, they reached the palace. Seeing it, the lofty architecture, the beautiful gardens, the stone paths, the wide halls with ornate pictures of all of the rulers or the Western Lands adorning the halls, all of it gave Inuyasha the willies. He'd come _so_ close to losing Kagome—and Koinu through her—forever to Sesshomaru's paranoia in that very castle. Coming back to it made his stomach twist and flip.

_It can't be an omen can it…?_ He prayed silently that it wasn't.

This time they were escorted in to the court hall where Sesshomaru met with his allies and enemies alike. There they waited while a servant dashed off to bring the demon lord. Inuyasha steeled himself for the attack and the huge fight that was inevitably coming. _Damn you Sesshomaru, I **hate** thinking about a fight beforehand, I like just jumping into it…_

A door slid open just as his thoughts had veered off to worry about Kagome and Koinu. As he looked up Inuyasha immediately cringed, meeting his brother's identical golden eyes, his cold, expressionless face, the maroon, almost wine-colored marks on his brother's face that denoted him as a highborn, regal demon lord. Sesshomaru glowered down at them coldly as he took a seat—his eyes were narrowed and icy. His gaze switched very slowly from one relative to the other. Both of them had bowed—though Shimofuri's was noticeably lower, offering the older lord the respect due to one of his stature.

"Face me." Sesshomaru ordered, his voice small and almost delicate, but as powerful as thunder seemingly at once. They did, Inuyasha unabashedly glaring the whole time. The demon lord met his little brother's gaze and a flicker of bitterness, of deep-seated hatred and—something else?—appeared in his sharp golden eyes.

"Little brother," a tiny hint of a smirk came to Sesshomaru's face and then vanished. His voice remained monotone, "I see you have broken our pact." He inclined his head once; his eyes grew unfocused, as if what he spoke bored him, though both brothers, as well as Shimofuri, knew better. "Your life is forfeit now."

"I didn't come here of my own damn free will—asshole." He snarled, flashing his canines swiftly to make sure his brother understood that should it come to fighting, he was still just as determined and desperate. If Sesshomaru had any sense at all he would know that his younger brother was even more serious this time around with both a mate _and_ a pup to protect. In a way his added obligation made Inuyasha even more aggressive as well—Sesshomaru had proven himself an enemy and threat before, thus Inuyasha was liable to jump at the chance to fight him and potentially rid his mate and pup of a future threat…

"Perhaps," Sesshomaru murmured, still looking bored, "I could let it pass this time." Now his golden gaze moved slightly, and with the utmost slowness, toward Shimofuri. "Cousin," he nodded his head lower, in what could almost have been a bow, "I have heard of the beast you seek. Your mother, Lady Taikokajin, visited me with the news some time ago."

Shimofuri nodded gently, "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru, she was most saddened when you declined to help her." The young lord's grayish eyes lingered lightly on Sesshomaru's full of respect but also an easily seen curiosity. He waited for and watched Sesshomaru's reaction very closely.

The lips thinned, bleached white slightly, "I am no fan of the clan, young Shimofuri." His eyes darted once, loathingly, to the hanyou, "The clan is worthless."

Seeing as his older brother's gaze was so clearly directed at him, Inuyasha immediately took this as an insult that was indirectly meant for him. He reacted to it as such.

"So are you but we still have to put up with all your shit!" Inuyasha shot back, growling.

Sesshomaru's gaze grew especially disgusted now, "I could easily and more accurately say the same of you, little brother."

Shimofuri watched the exchange expressionlessly, though there was a slight glint in his eyes as he flicked his gaze between the brothers, following their banter avidly.

"Well that's funny for you to say, Sesshomaru, when _everyone_ in Japan knows _my_ name, but almost no one outside of the Western Lands has a clue who the hell _you_ are…"

"_You_ were aided by three humans and two other small youkai on all of your quests. You shame our father's lineage with such lowly companions."

"Oh! You're _so_ original!" Inuyasha glared, "And _at least_ I didn't mate someone I raised as a _daughter!_"

The corners of Sesshomaru's lips turned downward in a brief show of distaste. "This Sesshomaru does not waste time arguing with _worthless_ hanyous…" he looked toward Shimofuri, the brief annoyance he'd shown for Inuyasha immediately gone. "You have come here to speak with me. Why?"

Shimofuri bowed—partly to beg a sort of pardon for having to ask a favor of the demon lord, and partly to make certain that Sesshomaru missed the slight amusement that had crept into his expression, "Lord Sesshomaru, we ask only your permission to cross your lands as allies, not as unwanted trespassers. Will you grant such an honor to us?"

Inuyasha snorted, "Feh! He's got such a huge stick up his ass he'll never—"

Sesshomaru interrupted his younger brother, completely ignoring his derogatory comments, "I will grant it, cousin Shimofuri." He seemed to be a statue, giving no further movement, not even his golden eyes flickered or changed. He was completely detached…or so it seemed.

A second later he spoke again, "But, why, I must ask, does my cousin Lady Taikokajin feel it nessecary to ask me to kill Inuyasha for her?"

* * *

The shrill wailing woke her, bit by bit. At first Kagome was shaky, disoriented. What was the sound? Where was it coming from? Could she stop it? Was she responsible for it somehow? Her joints ached when she tried to move, even opening her eyes to look around made her head feel like it was going to explode. Her body protested everything but continual sleep…even so the shrieking was nonstop and incredibly loud. It also spoke to something inside her, a tiny place that still beat and pulsed with a liveliness the rest of her didn't feel at all…that place demanded that she be awake and vigilant, and that she had to deal with the source of the noise and swiftly.

Very slowly Kagome opened her eyes. The room was dark, there were heavy soft, warm things bundled about her that were lighter than the surrounding darkness—furs, she realized, taking the place and purpose of blankets. She was sleeping on a mattress, a futon maybe…the noise itself was coming from directly at her side…it _moved._

Memory returned then, slowly, and painfully. Kagome made her own cries, joining those of her tiny, confused and hungry son, as the memories seemed to set off explosions in protest to her wakefulness. She whimpered weakly and fearfully at it, wondering what was _wrong_ with her…

For the past two weeks roughly she'd been a "guest" at Taikokajin's palace, and she'd been bored out of her mind through most of the first week…until the illness came upon her. At first it'd been like a stomach flu: she'd been unable to keep anything down for a few hours and slept with an ugly bowl beside her futon for a few nights. That flu had left her shaky and weak—and though she had eaten heartily Kagome found that there was no pleasure in it and her strength never really returned. For the rest of that week she'd suffered feverish nights, painful joints, and fatigue. Taikokajin had given nothing to her in the way of medicine, although Nikimi had been trying to find something for her: the day before the maid had given Kagome some sour tasting tea that had had an herb in it to calm her fever and soothe her joints—something like Tylenol she suspected.

It hadn't worked, and Kagome was starting to wonder if Taikokajin's lack of care was intentional—were they poisoning her?

Koinu's frantic cries, and scrabbling at her chest with his little clawed hands in frustration, reminded her that she'd been suspecting poison for a long time, but Koinu wasn't any worse for the wear and he received all his nourishment through her. Why, then, if Taikokajin was poisoning her "guest" wasn't Koinu ill? The answer: she wasn't being poisoned and therefore the problem lied somewhere else within her…

The pup's little clawed hands tickled her skin as he clutched at his one and only food source, trying to make her see what he needed. Weakly Kagome reached out to him and pulled him closer, trying to soothe him while she searched for the inner strength she needed to be able to sit up and nurse the pup. His cries quieted a little as he recognized that his mother was awake. He snuggled against her, whimpering and crying with his remaining frustration, little hands clutching her. His tears soaked immediately into the thin kimono robe she was wearing, thank you Nikimi.

Just as she'd sat up and began slipping the robe from one shoulder footsteps resounded in the hall outside. An inner instinct that Kagome hadn't known she possessed seemed to flare up and she froze, stiffening. Koinu sensed this and his cries quieted instinctually, though his little claws grasped onto her tighter than before and he whimpered quietly. His tiny ears flicked and twittered fearfully.

The to their room slid open and even before Kagome saw the older face, the larger frame, and the more expensive kimono, she knew it wasn't the trustworthy Nikimi, but the snakelike Momo—Taikokajin's trusted favorite. Just inside the doorway Momo bowed and remained that way until she spoke, her voice was hesitant and uncertain, as if she had been surprised about something…but what?

"My Lady Inuyasha…" she slowly rose from her bow and walked cautiously forward to Kagome and the whimpering Koinu, her eyes large and shining in the dim light with what most anyone else would've taken to be worry. Yet Kagome was certain that it was tinged with something more conniving just under the surface.

Weakly Kagome pulled her robe back up over her shoulder and cuddled Koinu even closer to her body. "Momo, is it?" she whispered, her voice scratchy and weak from lack of use.

Momo nodded and bowed a second time when she'd come to within three feet of the young mother's bedside. "I'm afraid, my lady, that your child has been crying for a very long time!" she sounded concerned, but Kagome remained suspicious. Against her chest Koinu was beginning to whimper with more intensity. "I was sent to make sure that you and the child were well…Lady Taikokajin would not like it if something bad happened to either of you while you are within her care."

_Of course she wouldn't…_Kagome had to restrain the desire to roll her eyes sarcastically. "You can tell your _lady_," she hissed, "That I'm fine, no thanks to her."

Momo looked a little startled, perhaps even insulted. She covered that quickly with yet another bow, this one deeper than the last one, meant to make Kagome feel bad for her accusation, "My mistress knows of your mysterious illness, and she allowed Nikimi to treat you with the herbal tea. Has it not helped you?"

"No…" Kagome fought a sudden wave of dizziness and fatigue. She took a deep breath and let one hand fall away from Koinu to support herself. "I'm still feverish."

Now a sparkle came in Momo's eye that Kagome just missed, but had she seen it she would've instantly been filled with dread, "I shall tell my lady that you are still ill and we shall send more potent tea to treat your illness, Lady Inuyasha…" she paused, her eyes particularly keen suddenly, "But…in the meantime, perhaps you should let someone else nurse the child for you. Illness can pass from mother to child so easily. What only bothers the mother can be fatal to the child. If it's not already too late you should ask for a wet nurse…"

Kagome felt her stomach clench up in horror. _What if she's right…? But what if she's just saying it to get Koinu away from me and…_ Her mind was muddled, confused. Either way she lost. If she kept Koinu he might grow ill and die…if she let him go Taikokajin might—she didn't even want to think about it, the whole situation didn't bode well for her. She squeezed her eyes closed tightly with fear. _Inuyasha! Where are you? I need you; we both need you…_

"Lady Inuyasha?" Kagome felt the maid's plump, warm hand fall on her still mostly bare shoulder and she flinched, pulling away only to fall back with Koinu sprawled over her chest and belly. The pup started to scream again in protestation.

"Stay away from us!" Kagome shouted over her son's wailing, slapping away Momo's seemingly concerned hands.

"But your child may get sick, my lady!" Momo protested, her voice shrill. But despite her outcry she remained a good distance from Kagome, reserved and withdrawn. "What can I do to make you at ease, Lady Inuyasha?" the words were spoken coldly, and Kagome sensed that Momo was angry, frustrated just beneath the surface. She'd wanted some other response from Kagome and was severely disappointed that she hadn't gotten it.

The feeling of success made Kagome a little less shaky, though the groggy; half-awake feeling remained with her, just behind her eyes. She moved slowly thanks to the pain that shot through her joints and her muscles. "Tea and something good to eat." She answered, clearing her throat as she slowly settled back into a sitting position, rocking and soothing Koinu into quiet ravenous whimpering once more.

Momo bowed, "I shall report this to my mistress and be back soon." She rose and swiftly left the room on now shuffling feet. Kagome noticed the change in her walking—from a thick, heavy tread of confidence to the shuffling, quiet demeanor expected of a maid. _Momo is an actress…_she thought, shivering.

When the door slid shut and the steady whisking of Momo's feet and robes had vanished away down the hall Kagome sighed with an exhausted relief. The pain in her head swarmed and though she wavered even where she was sitting, nothing stopped her from slipping one shoulder out of her kimono and letting the seemingly starving Koinu satisfy his never-ending hunger.

As soon as her son began to make a contented rumble deep in his little chest—she wasn't sure how he could nurse as much as he did and so often and _still_ have enough empty space to house his lungs as well as his stomach—Kagome settled back under the furs tiredly, shivering.

The pup's little fists tickled and played over her skin, making her smile and tweak his ears. Koinu always seemed, like a real puppy or a kitten, to want to knead her while he nursed, but in the end he only managed to do a child-equivalent of gentle tickling. Never before had she so appreciated the ritual. Never before had she realized just how comforting her little son's presence was…her fingers stilled on the pup's soft, tiny white ears as the image of Taikokajin played itself through her mind.

She shifted, despite the pain it caused her, and the fatigue that dulled her thoughts, onto her side so she could more easily stare down at her precious son, stroke his cheeks and fair, silver hair. The tears came to her eyes before she could stop them. _I'm so weak, Koinu…if Taikokajin came and took you from me, would you remember me when you're grown? Would you look that pink-eyed monster in the eye and call her "Mother" even if you knew she wasn't?_ Kagome's fingers grazed, a feather-soft touch, across Koinu's cheek…the pup opened his eyes and stared up at her. Even through the dark she could see the lingering wetness in the pup's bright blue orbs and the beginnings of what might have been awareness, of an inkling of understanding that his mother was unhappy somehow…or was it just a trick of the light?

_I might never be able to find out…_but she wanted to, wanted it more than she'd thought it was possible to want something. She _wanted_ to watch Koinu grow up, she _wanted_ to hear his first words, she _wanted _to see him walk, and she _wanted_ to hear him call _her_ "Mama." Every scream, every first-time, every pain, every smile, every laugh, every tear, every fear, every love, every desire, every accomplishment and every failure…she wanted every moment of it…

Through her blurry, tear-ridden vision, Kagome stroked Koinu's hair and face, silently listening to her son's contented rumbling until at last she fell into the oblivion of sleep on the wordless lullaby her pup trilled for her.

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Sorry no endnotes this time, gotta run! GRADUATION! 


	21. Demons Vampires and Mikos

**Disclaimer:** Nope...don't own him...Kagome does (smirks)

**A/N:** Okay, computer ate my first message here...grr...I have Graduated! After the all night party at the W (YMCA to the rest of the U.S., don't as we're weird where I live) I have had a lot of extra time while my sisters and Mom still do their normal daily routine. I have, obviously, been using that time to write. My regular readers can probably tell that b/c _I Miss You, _and _WIB_ have all been updated right after each other...I am, as you can tell, free and a little bored. But that's okay...(grins) just send me a line in a review, eh? It's all good...Key now to the story: **_Warning! Warning Danger Will Robinson! Danger!_** yea I know, dumb, but anyway cursing is UPPED this chapter and Inuyasha gets (ahem!) vulgar while trying to bash his brother. Yes, no more cliffy there, the Sesshy-Yasha confrontation is upon us! But try not to gasp and gape TOO much at some of the things Inuyasha taunts his brother with or someone else in your household might give you a funny look...(smirks) anyway, the taunts also fit into a back story that I don't really expand on here but I have planned out in my head...see if you can find it...the rest I think speaks for itself and needs no words, other then that you're all going to hate Lady Pinky some more...I'm proud of my scene between her and Momo later...but you're going to hate me for the insunuation of future threats to Koinu and Kagome...well anyway, nuff of me babbling: Enjoy!

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**Demons, Vampires and Mikos**

Shimofuri felt a black fear—or was it shame?—open up inside him. _Mother, why didn't you keep your foolish plots to yourself? You've been so blinded by your desperation for Tsukiyume…why didn't you stop to think that you'd be insulting Sesshomaru by asking him to do that?_ He kept his face smooth and unaffected, as if Sesshomaru had asked if the weather outside was pleasant. At his side he could feel Inuyasha spoiling for a fight, though with who exactly had yet to be determined.

_It's time to play politician, Shimofuri…_he lifted his head a smidgen higher, trying to exude confidence. "What is this, my lord, that you speak of? I was not aware of any plans my mother had for your younger brother." He struggled to keep his nervousness from reaching his sweat glands—if it did Sesshomaru would easily pick out the fact that he was lying. Liars always carried with them a particular scent and dog demon lords tended to be the absolute best at discovering such lies.

One look at Sesshomaru's golden eyes and Shimofuri knew that something had tipped the demon lord to see the lie. A tiny narrowing of the golden eyes, so like Inuyasha's, and a slight thinning of the lips. A muscle in the jaw twitched, tightened, and then ceased all movement.

"You are a fine speaker, young Shimofuri." Sesshomaru granted, though a note of sarcasm resounded in his otherwise monotone voice, "But your face belies your words easily." His golden eyes lost their sharp focus, seemingly bored again by the topic, "You are too closely related to Lady Taikokajin." The way his words were spoken left no doubt to either Inuyasha or Shimofuri that it was meant as an insult.

"Damn straight Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha abruptly interjected, his white fangs gleaming in an expression that was somewhere between a grimace and a smirk. "That pink-eyed little bitch has been a pain in my ass since I first met her!"

Sesshomaru's gaze, had it been lethal, would've long ago incinerated Inuyasha. As it was it seemed to smolder and singe Shimofuri despite the fact that it wasn't even aimed at him. The hanyou, however, remained unflinchingly within that stony glare; his smirking somehow even managed to increase at it.

"I grow tired of your voice, Inuyasha." The monotone somehow managed to snarl, though the stony, handsome face remained unchanging.

"Yeah? Well, you know I'm getting sick of your face, dumb-ass."

Sesshomaru pretended that his brother had completely vanished and instead looked to the young, inexperienced heir of the Middle Lands. "Do you intend to kill Inuyasha?"

Shimofuri blinked once, and then cursed himself for doing it. Sesshomaru's bland, flat tone had so taken him by surprise that it had left him dumb, speechless. Perhaps it had been what the demon lord intended—he seemed to look particularly satisfied now.

_What am I supposed to say?_ Beside him Inuyasha was stiff, his scent radiated aggression, testosterone, a stiff readiness for battle. The hanyou had a mate and pup he needed to stay alive for and at the first sign of danger he would turn rogue and renegade, slaughtering both demons if he could…in front of him Sesshomaru was a mystery, waiting expectantly, eyes narrowed dangerously. There was likely no right answer, Shimofuri suspected, but instinct whispered of denial or a negative answer…yet some other part of him screamed for the truth.

Shimofuri turned slightly, pinning Sesshomaru and ignoring Inuyasha for a moment. The gray-blue eyes met the fiery sunlight of the golden-yellow, Middle and Western lands clashing, youth and age matching one another.

"My mother requested that I kill Inuyasha, yes."

The said hanyou stirred, growling, "Why you little runt, I'll slit you—"

"However," Shimofuri rose his voice above Inuyasha's onslaught and cleared his throat, "I had not given it serious consideration. My only wish in this quest is to ensure that my mother holds Lord Inuyasha's mate and pup safely, and to help my half-sister. I have no other vendettas, and no reason to strike out against Lord Inuyasha."

Sesshomaru appeared, though it was a quiet expression, pissed. "My half-brother is _not_ a lord." He corrected, throwing a quick glance that dripped poison to the aforementioned hanyou.

"Yeah, but I'm _still_ better than _you."_ Inuyasha growled. His hands were lingering at the hilt of his infamous sword, ready and waiting.

Sesshomaru's golden eyes narrowed to slits of yellow-gold hatred, twin beams of it trying to burn his half-brother alive, "Inuyasha." He raised his one hand up to chest level and flexed the clawed fingers. They cracked ominously, a bluish-white youkai energy crackled once like electricity. "How is your little wench doing?" he asked, his voice a dark monotone, threatening, "I've heard the bitch bore you a pup—a son. You'll have to forgive me, little brother, I forgot to send congratulations…" the youkai energy cracked again and Sesshomaru's face took on a cruel look, eager to deal out torture and violence…

Shimofuri's heart was beginning to pick up speed. He had fought with lesser demons before, slaughtered many of them. He'd killed a few cat and panther demons sometimes while out alone patrolling his mother's lands—but _never_ had he fought demons equal to either Sesshomaru or Inuyasha. He had honestly not known what he was embarking on when he'd brought the brothers together…he tried to stifle the panic that was beginning to engulf him. _I must stop this!_

"My lords—" he began, stretching out his hands in what he hoped was a peaceful, calming motion, "This is—" Inuyasha's voice drowned out his message of peace before it had even really started.

"You son of a bitch!" the hanyou jumped to his feet, hands ready to rip Tetsusaiga from its sheath.

"Yes, little brother," Sesshomaru's fingers flicked again, the energy crackled like the tendrils of a fire, "I _am_ the son of a female dog demon! Don't waste my time with your stupidity."

"_You're_ the one who's stupid, Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha snarled, "You leave Kagome and Koinu the _hell_ outta this or damn it all, I'll blow you straight to hell—and that'll be _after_ I slice your other arm off!" midway through his blustering threat Inuyasha had ripped Tetsusaiga out of its scabbard, instantly transforming his father's renowned Fang of Destruction.

The demon lord of the Western Lands smirked noticeably, though disgust wavered in his golden eyes. He'd risen to his feet, his body in a very relaxed stance, as if they weren't about to tear each other limb from limb. "You named your son Koinu? Puppy?" the start of a shining green peeked out of the edges of Sesshomaru's clawed fingertips, "How adorable of you, Inuyasha."

Shimofuri resisted the urge to grind his teeth together in frustration. _How can they do this? Just fighting anywhere? If they try to tear each other apart in here it'll ruin the castle! Doesn't Sesshomaru see that? How do I stop this!_ The youth's eyes strayed to the sliding door that Sesshomaru had entered from…he remembered, vaguely, that his mother had gathered information and rumors about Sesshomaru before she'd come to ask his help. A few of them she had mentioned to him in idle amusement…one of them had been the rumor that Sesshomaru's human mate was the only one that had any real power over the demon lord.

Taking the risk seemed by far preferable to the alternative of sitting on his butt while the hanyou and his half-brother destroyed the palace around them and delayed their quest to destroy Garou and rescue Tsukiyume before it was too late…with one silent but very deep breath, Shimofuri rose to his feet and padded hurriedly toward the door. Behind him the battle was still only one of words, though by the sound of Inuyasha's ferocity it was fast growing into something more…

"Fuck you!" Inuyasha blustered, unable to come up with anything better for the moment. He leveled Tetsusaiga at his brother and sneered, "At least I _have_ a son!"

This seemingly lame comeback drew a downward tug on the inuyoukai lord's lips, a small frown. As Inuyasha lifted Tetsusaiga to be about even with his older brother's head he smirked viciously, sensing from his brother's brief flash of outrage. Somehow he'd hit a nerve within his stony older brother, "Ah ha! So my big badass brother can't get it up eh?"

"_Silence!_" Sesshomaru commanded, but Inuyasha's dangerously vulgar taunting continued unabated.

"Or did I slice more off than just your arm, Sesshomaru? C'mon, level with me, we're brothers, remember?" the hanyou was grinning wickedly, his grip on Tetsusaiga wrenching and twisting, preparing the sword for action. Any minute now and Sesshomaru would be provoked into battle…

The green, spectral-like energy—though it was anything but imaginary and completely solid Inuyasha knew from experience—grew from each finger and then united an inch down into a thicker, glowing cord. It pulsed with Sesshomaru's wrath. "You will be _silent_, worthless hanyou!"

"Oi—that was lame. How can I be worthless, Sesshomaru, when I'm the only one that's carrying on Father's line, hmm?"

"I will _kill_ you, Inuyasha, but not before I slaughter that human wench and your bastard pup." The whip had grown so long it was now curled on the floor, a snake waiting for the moment of the strike. The demon lord wrenched his hand backward, preparing to lash the weapon out…

"Bring it!" Inuyasha bellowed, lowering his stance in preparation.

Sesshomaru's body stiffened, his arm muscles flexed, his fingers tightened, and his face twisted into a mask, a battle-hardened grimace of hate…the green flash of the whip started to move, to uncoil…

"No!" a woman's voice, high and shrill, cut through the thick, tension-ridden air. Immediately Sesshomaru's hand halted at the sound, his face dropped the hatred mask and transformed to one of widened eyes, surprise—panic. He sniffed the air and took in exactly what he'd feared…_Rin._

Inuyasha's ears moved backward and forwards in confusion, his face was caught between a smirk of amusement and a frown of bafflement. He too caught the faintly familiar scent of the young woman his brother had raised and then mated…but the scent had changed, warped, aged. It was troubled…and in a flash of insight Inuyasha realized that his brother's scent was different too, pained by worry and a sickness of…dare he say it? Yes, he had to—a sickness of the heart.

From the sliding door two figures emerged. One was the lithe and tall form of Shimofuri, sliding aside to let the other pass in front of him. The gray-blue eyes sparkled with a mixture of pride and profound relief. Behind him a shorter, pallid-faced, black haired woman appeared, her deep, dark brown eyes focused solely on Sesshomaru's poised form.

Inuyasha lowered the Tetsusaiga to the floor, letting the blade rest there, still a danger but now a withdrawn one. This movement drew a narrowing of the eyes from Sesshomaru briefly before he too let the pulsating green whip slowly withdraw, vanishing from whence it came into the demon lord's fingers.

Rin made her move then, stepping forward into the room and falling to her knees in a low bow just behind Sesshomaru. "My lord," she murmured, faintly.

Inuyasha took the moment to study her carefully then, and blinked with surprise at what he saw. Rin wore an outer robe of orange-yellow, a color just a tad darker than that of the Inutaisho siblings. It seemed obvious that whatever she was wearing underneath had been unacceptable for company eyes, thus she'd needed the outer robe to cover it up. When Inuyasha sniffed the air he noted that there was a scent of lingering illness about her: blood, sleep, fatigue…when she looked up at Sesshomaru, who'd finally turned to face her, Inuyasha saw the girl's pale cheeks, the pained glimmer in her eyes…and as he inhaled a second time he realized with a jolt that he'd smelled this illness before, knew exactly what it was…

More than a year ago Inuyasha and Kagome had been struggling to start a family. Once Inuyasha had thought, with his acute sense of smell, that they had succeeded. Kagome's scent had changed as her hormones did, tuning him into the possibility of pregnancy long before Kagome herself ever suspected it. But it wasn't meant to be. Just as he'd been sure of it, and just as Kagome had begun to think the same thing, the scent had changed into the illness stink, and was washed away in blood. Kagome had recovered after a time, but the loss was something that had pained her nonetheless, though she hadn't ever really grasped its importance as much as he had through his nose: it was a miscarriage. It was the loss of an unborn life.

Now, staring at Rin as she knelt before his older half-brother, Inuyasha smelled the same scent and felt an abrupt pity sweep over him. Without realizing he did it, the hanyou lifted Tetsusaiga and sheathed the weapon, sighing heavily. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited, listening and watching the interactions between his brother and Rin.

"Rin." Sesshomaru's voice was as close to a growl as any of them with the exception of Rin had ever heard it come before. "Why have you disturbed us?"

"Please forgive me," she murmured, bowing a second time, "I cannot stand bloodshed in this palace while there is still a task to be done."

"A task?" Sesshomaru asked, his voice an empty question.

"Yes…" she sat up and looked past him to Inuyasha. "I remember when my lord told me of his discussion with Lady Taikokajin. She spoke of a hanyou-eating monster. I wished then that my lord had agreed to help Lady Taikokajin…" she threw Sesshomaru a brief look that thoroughly screamed, 'I told you so!'

"But, of course, cold bastard as he is," Inuyasha interjected smugly, "He didn't."

Sesshomaru showed no sign whatsoever that he had heard this, but when he spoke again to Rin it was with a harsher sound to his monotone. "Rin. Get up."

She obeyed wordlessly. Her thin, frail form, for all its physical weakness, radiated strength and defiance. Inuyasha wondered briefly how it was that Sesshomaru could stand the young woman's proud bearing, let alone her humanity, which he'd always professed so obstinately to hate with a vengeance.

The demon lord's one strong hand lashed out and settled on Rin's waist, directing her toward the exit of the room. Although his face was stony and cold, Sesshomaru radiated anger. "Leave us, Rin. This is a matter of diplomacy."

She turned in his grip, despite the fact that his clawed fingers twisted the robe with her movement, exposing the slip of white under robes beneath it. "Lord Sesshomaru!" she eyed him with a knowing, accusation-filled glare, "You use your whip in matters of diplomacy?"

Inuyasha tried, and failed, to withhold the snickering snort that escaped his throat. "The jig's up Sesshomaru."

Once again the demon lord ignored his younger brother's quips. "_Leave_, Rin." He ordered, his voice stern, almost openly angry now.

Rather than move to obey her mate swiftly, Rin lingered, turning in Sesshomaru's grip until she faced him completely. Though Inuyasha knew something strange was going on between the couple he couldn't move to see the exchange completely without drawing Sesshomaru's attention, and as long as he remained where he was his brother's back blocked his view of Rin. He suddenly envied Shimofuri, who remained by the doorway to the room and could see _everything_ that went on. Judging from the young lord's frequently very open face, Inuyasha was missing something very interesting.

Rin had enfolded her mate's one hand into both of her own and was squeezing them rhythmically. Her head had dipped forward just enough to rest her lips against the demon lord's chest as she whispered very quietly her last attempt to ensure that Sesshomaru left his half-brother and the young heir of the Middle Lands alone and unmolested. Though Shimofuri didn't catch every word he did manage to make out the gist of her bribe: she was going to bathe and she wanted _someone_ to come and join her in a few minutes…

Sesshomaru's eyes had narrowed—but not with anger or malice…rather with a hungry, predatory gleam. "Go then." He ordered, pushing her gently away. This time Rin flowed out of the room, her task completed.

Only when the door had slid shut behind her did Sesshomaru turn and glare at Shimofuri. "You have my permission to cross my lands—but I _will_ be watching you both. You are to escort Inuyasha to this beast and slay it…" his eyes were tiny slits of threat and distrust, "Do not kill Inuyasha—that is _my_ responsibility. Tell Lady Taikokajin that as well."

Inuyasha was ready to ram Tetsusaiga through Sesshomaru's guts. "Like hell _any_ of you losers will!"

Sesshomaru was unruffled by his brother's words. "Arrogant, Inuyasha—and foolish. I shall kill you another day when Rin is too busy with my pups to notice." He ignored Inuyasha's death glare and bowed to Shimofuri just slightly. "Good day, cousin."

And then the demon lord of the Western Lands had vanished beyond his sliding doorway, eager to sneak up on Rin in the bathhouse.

In the silence that swallowed up the room afterwards Inuyasha crossed his arms and snorted angrily, turning his nose upwards, "Feh! What a pussy!"

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"She has yet to succumb to the furui's soul-sapping?" Taikokajin snapped, irritably, eyeing Momo over her shoulder with a sneer as the squat, mousy woman tied the demon woman's ornate obi carefully behind her. 

"I'm afraid so, my lady." Momo repeated, timidly. Her hands, browned from work in the gardens as a much younger woman, worked as delicately as she could make her own plump, sausage fingers perform. She nearly held her breath as she struggled to tie the sash correctly.

Today the kimono was baby blue and the obi gray—a man's colors, shades her son liked wearing…shades his _father_ had liked. Taikokajin scowled, sneering at her reflection. If she thought back hard enough, she realized, this kimono was likely a betrothal gift from her damned mate's family. They all had the same features as Shimofuri—gray-blue eyes, darker colored hair. They might as well all have called themselves Gray, or Noukon for dark blue. She remembered the bitch that called herself Haiseishoku's mother, a dark, gloomy woman who stuck her nose up at her son's "unfortunate-looking" mate, the pink-eyed albino…

"Damn them all…" she cursed, still staring at her reflection.

Momo looked up from behind her, blinking confusedly. "I'm sorry my lady." She murmured, bowing to herself as she backed away from the finished obi. "The news of Lady Inuyasha's condition displeases you?"

Taikokajin hiked the wretched baby blue fabric up with her clawed hands, growling very much like an angry dog. Her pink eyes flashed just as violently as Inuyasha or Sesshomaru's could've with their brilliant gold. She glared dangerously at the innocent maid, "You're finally right about something, Momo." She snapped, stepping into her shoes for a moment to examine herself again, though the scowl remained firmly in place. "I _am_ displeased with her condition."

Momo, still some distance away and bowing low before her irritated mistress, looked up now, eager to regain her good graces. "Would you like me to slip her something in her meals…?"

Taikokajin paused a moment, her eyes becoming unfocused…and then she whirled on the maid, her face a mask of blind fury, "You foolish little wretch!" she snarled, stomping toward the prostrated maid like a raging bull, "_Don't even think about it!"_ she hissed, glaring down at the helpless mortal woman. "If you give the mother anything it may harm the pup—have you no sense?"

"No, my lady, I do not." Momo murmured, her face still kissing the floor.

Taikokajin made a noise of disgust in her throat and walked back toward the mirror, still posing before it, examining her face for flaws. After a moment she grunted, a sound almost like a man, and kicked her shoes off her feet. One of them ricocheted and hit the glass in one of the mirrors hard enough that it broke into a spidery web of shards that glittered, throwing light at strange angles. They broke the reflection of the swaying grasses that were embroidered on Taikokajin's kimono and turned them into cruel, stabbing lines instead, like knives or the crooked multitude of teeth inside a heartless demon's gaping mouth.

"Damn." Taikokajin cursed with a frown at the mirror. She looked back at Momo and raised her voice, "Well—what do I keep you for, woman! Get your lazy backsides over and fetch me a new mirror!"

Momo leapt to her feet and obeyed her mistress wordlessly. As she scrambled toward the door, carefully so as not to shatter the spider web of glass shards, Taikokajin rose her voice again commandingly, "Oh, and Momo, send in Mitori while you're out, tell her to bring a different kimono that she will dress me in."

"Yes, my lady." Momo answered, but her voice was weak, distraught, and timid. As she stepped out into the hallway, still carefully carting the mirror, the spidery cracks gave way and clattered and crashed to the floor. One of them managed to imbed itself into her foot mid-step. Momo nearly shrieked with the pain but clamped one hand over her mouth at the last moment, biting the insides of her cheeks until they bled.

Taikokajin had lost patience with her…Momo felt sick inside. She started once more down the hall, yelling for assistance, and for Mitori. The bloody footprints she left in her wake were testimony to her agony—both outside and inside.

This is all Lady Inuyasha's fault…if I could just snatch her pup away Lady Taikokajin would forgive everything and take me in as her favorite maid again…

Her mind spun wildly, plotting ways to pull herself back into the highest circle of the maid's social rung…_it would be so easy just to take the child…_

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_Garou's thick, ugly face scowled out over the waters of the lake, disturbed. Only part of his mind was present in the meadow, watching over the limp, rag-dolls that had once been hanyous, the rest of him was dispersed with his black magic, sent out in all directions of the compass. Many millions of years had allowed him keen extra-sensory perception of auras and souls—he could sense a half-demon's presence and health not only from hundreds of miles away, but also, in some special areas with a focused energy, through **time** itself. _

_He had done so with ease at the well…but the wretched miko woman and her child had escaped…though not wholly unscathed…_

_With a snarl Garou shook his head and stepped back from the waters of the lake, his mind once more complete. How was he supposed to hunt hanyous when there was one child whose single, solitary soul was enough to free his kind forever? He growled to himself, thick, clawed hands clenching into fists until they came close to piercing his own flesh. _

_A black energy, like a shadow given a body, swarmed and shifted about his hands, like a swarm of night-black ants or bees. Garou focused his mind, closed his angry, mud-brown eyes, and the blackness hovering about his fists was sucked back into his flesh._

**I've let her linger long enough…**

_The child's mother, the miko, was stubborn on a level that was hard for him to comprehend. It'd been weeks—**weeks—**since he'd gained a connection to her soul with his dark magic. **Weeks** since he'd begun to suck the life from her…and still the woman drew steady breath, was able to wake from his grasp, and was actually beginning to **fight** him. _

_Her soul was **massive. **He'd had an idea from the moment he'd touched her and gained the connection with her that it was, but he'd never guessed, never even considered, that her soul could be so huge. And powerful. Though she likely had yet to understand what was happening to her—after all, she had been unconscious when he'd touched her, how could she remember his spell, his evil touch?—Garou had no doubt that when she did, not if, but when, his task would be a lot harder._

_So it was that he turned his attention from hunting hanyous and toward his faraway, seemingly helpless prey. He urged and strengthened the spell over the mother, tightened his grip…and felt her very oppositely charged miko's energy grate on his mind and body alike…_

_Static electricity crackled along his clawed fingers, stinging and burning, but Garou pushed past it, ignored the pain…the miko could only last so long against the black magic, no matter how strong her will was—she was still a mortal creature, a thing bound to the earth. She was controlled by life and death together, by all the earth's natural rhythms. He however, was not. No earthly rules such as death bound him, he was immortal in the truest way on only one condition: that he used the lives of others, hanyous, to keep his own soul and body connected to the earth. _

_He was a vampire. _

_It was this difference between his dark magic and her miko energy with its purity, which assured Garou of his success against her. The miko and he might be evenly matched—but while she would weaken and need time to recover, he need only devour another hanyou's soul and be normal again in mere moments. _

_The miko woman's strength failed her then and Garou's black magic withdrew…his hands shook as he reached to the bright, glowing stone about his neck, the Soul Stone that housed the souls of the hanyous that he needed to devour to stay alive. Palms clasped the Stone, drew the needed energy out for his recovery…when Garou let go of the Stone he snarled viciously with frustration and looked furiously toward the lake waters again…_

_**That damned miko!** He'd never thought that hurrying the process would drain him so much—the power the mother carried within her was far more powerful than he had anticipated. His magic had drawn out nearly a dozen souls to replenish him—**that was too many!**_

_He settled himself down into what would've been a meditating position for a monk, but for him it was a hunting position. No matter how much he wanted to orphan the child he couldn't risk that many souls at one time to do it…it would have to be a mix of fast and slow. Time would defeat the miko; she was, despite her power, only human and thoroughly bound by the laws of earthly life. _

_For Garou the hanyou-eating vampire there was only one law to follow besides self-preservation: the continuous hunt for souls. He hunted them so ruthlessly that it was never long before Garou rendered them temporarily extinct—and then he was always forced to move on. Continent to continent, the hanyou hunter made himself a nomad, wretched and homeless. If he couldn't get his claws on the child before Japan's supply of half-demons was exhausted, he would be forced to leave and another million years might pass before he could find another suitable child…the healthy offspring of a male inu-hanyou. _

_As he settled by the shores of the lake, the gentle waves brushing the beach, his mind splintered and shot in every direction, his senses flowing out over the lands around him, seeking familiar half-demons' auras like a child looking for chocolate Easter eggs. As he slowly became absorbed in this search for food, Garou failed to notice the timid stirring of one of his hanyou prizes: the whelp named Tsukiyume. He completely missed the quiet pulsing of her soul, of her consciousness, growing like a thundercloud in the afternoon skies, slowly reaching up and outward…_

_He failed to notice that this gentle, subtle spiritual energy dulled his hunting senses, just enough to hide one hanyou from him. It shielded one half-demon's soul and aura even as it drew steadily closer to where Garou had made his foul den at the shore of this lake. Garou never sensed the famed Inuyasha, never thought to question why the pink bitch of the Middle Lands or the inu-hanyou mate of the miko for that matter had seemingly not bothered to confront him to reclaim their loved ones…_

* * *

_Endnotes:_ THANK YOU ALL! I know that my last posting of this was before the (or was it just after? I can't remember...) the Memorial Day weekend, during which time FFnet wouldn't let everyone (or was it just me? Oh well...) log in...(snickers) I guess even website managers and such need vacations...well, here it is, earlier than normal thank you Graduation, i have more time to waste writing...(smirks.) So my THANK YOU to everyone! And all of last time's reviews that I didn't get to (Chapter 19 I think) I shall answer now... 

THANK YOU: (From Chapter 19) _**The Moonless Night**_ (good question...I think he could either wear it in the style that Inuyasha's father wore it or long like Inuyasha and Sesshomaru keep there's. My instinct is to say long and neatly kept like Sesshomaru b/c I've always thought of him as a younger, sweeter Sesshy only with blue-black hair (smirks) definately a good question, keeping me on my toes...) _**orangepencils**_ (Yes, I don't know anything about a Peach Girl but Momo does mean peach I think in Japanese...I took it out of memory from the book Memoirs of a Geisha from the nasty character "Hatsumomo.") _**Yami Chikara**_ (Lady Pinky made a mistake trying to tell Sesshy what to do, he'll never be a pawn if he can avoid it, even when the other individual has similar goals. You're also right, despite their fighting and wounding of each other I actually don't think Sesshomaru would kill Inuyasha, though they DO seem to enjoy fighting, as I showed here and have observed in the anime easily enough. Also **TO ALL:** I believe Sesshomaru's role in this story isn't completely over yet...(smirks)) _**freelke**_ (hands over a huge double chocolate chocolate-chip cookie(grins) This one will go on to be about as long as "Hanyou" its prequel was, I think. _I Miss You_ will go on maybe even longer...(shrugs) not sure yet...) _**kareemachan**_ (You have NO idea how much your review cheered me up when I read it! That day was miserable for me, my choir director played favorites BIG time and denied me a solo, despite the fact that I've been in choir for four years, served him at every concert. When I wanted recognition for it with a solo at Graduation he tossed me aside. I cried all the way home but your review made me smile for the first time in at least an hour! I thank you a LOT! Not only for your encouragement and your praise, but also for the sharing of your stories...my Mom has been urging me to finish a novel and submit it somewhere, but fanfiction is easier to write and I feel it hones my skill, though someday I DO need to stop it and turn to original writing. I hope to hear from you some more, and I hope to continue to please you! Again, THANK YOU! I hope you find this when i post it and I try my hardest never to forget a reviewer, never to insult or be cruel to one either! Again, THANK YOU!) _**Simonkal of Inyu**_ (good question about Sango and Miroku, I'm having attacks of guilt about them...don't worry, they'll find their way back in here sometime...) fanfiction1 (I think I meant highborn as in that his father was basically royalty...yes, ) _**Tiamath**_ (hehe, yes, you're right about sesshy...yes, I have described Garou in human form somewhere...I can't remember where exactly though. He has deep brown eyes...otherwise (shhh!) I've probably contradicted myself somewhere...) That's all questions from Chapter 19!

THANK YOU: (Chapter 20) _**orangepencils**_ (actually it's just like Sesshy, like he says he wants to kill IY but he refuses to do it if someone else tells him to do it...it's all about the "Huge stick up his ass" as Inuyasha would say.) _**SomeoneInThePastOfEarth, freelke**_ (yes, I am going to go to college, likely to major in an English/literature area and minor in the sciences...can you tell? (snickers)) _**kirarakitty**_ (LOL, yes, the number of times she's been possessed...(snickers)...her time is coming shortly...) _**Zoderella**_ (thank you! It was fun but generally unremarkable. I was ready to get outta there...) _**InuAndMiroku'sGirl Sango**_ (sorry about those cliffies...) _**slummyreddragon**_ (I don't drink alcohol and the all night party I went to was school-organized...I'm a good girl generally...though I'm not shy either. But hangovers from lack of sleep apply too I suppose, so you nailed me on that one!) _**TheDarkAngel101**_ ((smirks) I meant it to be sad though...I know if I were afraid of dying and not seeing my baby grow up...gosh I'd break down...) _**Prophet WolfStar**_ (GO Prophet! (snickers as she watches Taikokajin and WolfStar beat each other) hehe...I'm really loving making a utterly hate-able character.) _**Heather**_ (thank you...sorry I made you sad...(sniffles)) **_Simonkal of Inyu_ **(LOL, don't hurt yourself sitting on the pins and needles! Did you know you're one of the only, maybe you ARE the only one, who mentioned Tsuki's father's spirit? (nods) I was surprised...I've always had a slightly larger plan for Tsuki than it might appear. I really enjoyed writing the hints of her backstory...and her father's story I like desperately want to write into a one-shot, interested? Speaking of that, I did receive your message and I shall investigate your story, I already liked the name, "Why Not Me" and don't knock yourself! I've been writing a long time and reading a lot too to get this way...it's not a gift but a lot of practice. Also styles can differ, if your style isn't like mine that's FAR from a crime! Anyway, when I'm done with this I'll head on over to read it and review...) _**Tiamath**_ (hehe, Sesshomaru the Mule...can you imagine that fanart picture? A white mule with long silky hair, angry amber eyes and some huge fluff mokomoko-sama thingy for the tail or running down the back...(Giggles) And Taikokajin is probably sane, though her anxiety for her daughter has driven her to the breaking point. The backstory I've thought up for her illuminates her cruelty a little.) _**NefCanuck**_ ( I know all about stuff spazzing out...(nods)...) _**The Moonless Night**_ (Good to see you again! Sorry to hear about your brother...I hope it wasn't a car he had a run-in with...(cringes)...and you're one of very few who've mentioned Tsuki's run in with her father's spirit...thank you! I swear the idea of her father's identity smacked me one day and I just had to include it some way...the idea of a one-shot of that story still plagues me...) _**darkangel818**_ (You reviewed "Hanyou" Thank you! Sorryif you think I got it wrong...I hope if/when you read this story that you will think I've improved. Trouble with Kagome is that she's tough to get right sometimes, if I make her too strong-willed she gets called "a bitch" and if I make her quieter then she's a pushover...I hope I've improved...) Well that's everyone I think! Preview time!

_Inuyasha chuckled suddenly, his shoulders jerking with the movement as Shimofuri stared at his back, "Don't tell me that pink bitch of yours hasn't explained the birds and the bees to you yet, pup!" he paused mid-step and threw the gray-eyed inuyoukai youth a careful look, "Or was that your father's job?" _

_Shimofuri averted his eyes. "I am not naive." He assured the hanyou, and stepped forward, pressing past Inuyasha to lead the way._

Until next time!


	22. On The Trail

**Disclaimer:** Same old same old...I can dream but reality is simply "Nope."

**A/N:** For some reason I was under the impression that this had like recently been updated...(blinks stupidly) but it turns out it's been a whole week! AH! I have no excuse...I sit on my butt all day as it's summertime...I guess I'm just ridiculous guys...I can hear those drunken June Bugs blundering into my window--they must have claws or something b/c they sound like my cat does when she's trying to catch a bug on the otherside of the screen, this loud "Kathunk" noise...(shrugs) enough jabber--**More of my warning for Inu's pottymouth**. That's that. Mainly this installment is about Shimofuri and Inuyasha coming to terms with one another and beginning to trust on the simple developing likeness that Taikokajin's behavior is abhorrent. The End. But along the way, b/c I'm me, there's the Attack Of The Mushrooms to deal with, a Big Black Dog, Inuyasha Nappy Time, and A Sword Named Ribikou (that, I think means in Japanese **Ri**--clever. **Bikou**--shadow. ClverShadow.)

**

* * *

****On The Trail**

"Damn it!" Inuyasha snarled vehemently in front of Shimofuri, pausing in the underbrush, nose uplifted, making clear snuffling sounds as he tried to pick up the strange ancient demon's scent again. "That bastard's scent is so messed up that I can't follow it without loosing the bloody thing!"

"Messed up?" Shimofuri quoted, his voice emotionless and completely dry, though his gray-blue eyes smirked with obvious amusement. He'd grown, over his extensive time with Inuyasha, to take a bizarre enjoyment out of the hanyou's wild expressions, his complete and total obnoxiousness.

"Yeah," the golden eyes turned back to Shimofuri filled with a challenge. "You got something to say, _cousin?"_ just as Shimofuri had begun to find the hanyou amusing, Inuyasha in his turn, had taken to bantering with his young cousin, treating him with a similar roughness to the way he and Sesshomaru interacted—only on the whole without drawing their weapons to prepare for battle.

"No." Shimofuri answered, blandly.

_That_ was why Inuyasha liked this young cousin of his—he deferred to him without question.

He snorted, satisfied. "Damn straight you don't." looking ahead and sniffing again, Inuyasha ducked low to the ground awkwardly, trying to discern Garou's scent from the other mingling stenches left by feral cats, foxes, bears, weasels, rodents…that was the trouble with Garou's scent, he was unlike the other smells the forest animals exuded, and yet the scent of the furui was so quiet and similar enough to _all_ the other mammals that it was easily lost in the barrage of other smells that Inuyasha was familiar with. Inuyasha was beginning to suspect that Garou had designed it that way, choosing places and paths to travel that were trampled by other forest creatures whose scents easily masked his own.

A musty mushroom's spores puffed under one of Inuyasha's palms and immediately were swept into his nasal passageways. The hanyou was taken by a terrible fit of coughing and sprung dizzily to his feet, clawing at his nose, moisture streaming from his assaulted eyes. "_Damn it!"_

He stumbled and Shimofuri stepped forward soundlessly, his strong yet thinly boned hands catching his cousin's shoulder. Inuyasha accepted the support for a moment unknowingly as he hacked and spat and continued to claw at his nose and eyes. A few sneezes and a lot of incoherent curses later Inuyasha's golden eyes cleared and, red-rimmed with irritation, he noted with surprise that Shimofuri was patiently supporting him…

The hanyou restrained a snort at the realization. _Well I'll be damned…Shimo-kun could have whipped out his claws or his true form and slaughtered my clumsy ass…_he was _tired_ enough to be caught off guard by someone he was beginning to consider an ally—even though years of betrayal should've broken him of that. Shimofuri seemed to be under the impression that hanyous, like full-demons, didn't _need_ sleep and Inuyasha was too proud and stubborn to admit he needed a rest.

He shook his thoughts off and pushed free of Shimofuri's support, wanting to thank his cousin, but deciding against it in the end. _Besides, those mushrooms…_he snarled disgustedly as he caught sight of the accursed fungus and kicked it. His growling became a stream of obscenities directed at the lower life form. "Stupid piece of shit! Damn the whole hell-spawned lot of you!"

Shimofuri blinked at the hanyou's attack, no longer smirking as for the first time he caught an odor that he hadn't thought his legendary cousin possible of producing: exhaustion, not of the body but of the mind. A realization dawned on him: _Inuyasha needs to sleep…_

Although Shimofuri was familiar with his sister, who, as a hanyou, also showed the human need for semi-regular sleep patterns, he'd assumed that Inuyasha was different. Without really meaning to he'd pushed Inuyasha along as if he were a full-blooded inuyoukai, such as himself. Whether it was his cousin's legendary status that blinded him or Inuyasha's stubborn, rougher exterior façade, Shimofuri didn't know, but he did know that Inuyasha had hid the truth quite well…

Except, that was, for outbursts like this…but would Inuyasha sleep when he was traveling with someone he knew had been instructed to kill him? Shimofuri cringed inwardly, plagued suddenly by a guilt and compassion for the hanyou that he hadn't really known he possessed just yet. Guilt for the things he still had yet to reveal he knew to the hanyou. Compassion for his stubborn but endearing position, struggling to save his mate and pup and for holding himself with the bearing of a hero in the shell of an outcast half-demon. Others walked upon him, underestimated him, taunted him—stole his mate and pup from him, Shimofuri thought with a wince—and sniggled behind his back.

The life his cousin lead hadn't been fair or right or easy in the least—and, Shimofuri realized with a jolt—he wasn't helping correct any of it.

"Yo—Inuyasha to Shimo-chan, anyone in there?"

Shimofuri blinked again, pulled from his thoughts into the present and nodded sternly. _How can I get him to know he can trust me? How am I supposed to get him to sleep?_ At the same time he worried about time. Sleep took time away from them and Garou was hard for Inuyasha to track—and though Shimofuri had offered his help in that matter considering that he'd been doing it for his mother for quite some time the hanyou had insisted on doing it alone.

But as he stared at his cousin's sharp, irritated golden eyes he knew that soon the hanyou would snap if the extra time for some sleep weren't taken to ease his stress at least.

Inuyasha turned back toward the narrow animal trail that they'd been following for the last day and a half—nights included—and dug his heel into what was left of the decimated mushroom, twisting it with a glee that made him look almost devilish for a moment. He made a grunting, snorting sound then and, satisfied, walked on, leading the way.

Shimofuri followed slowly, thinking as fast and as hard as he could. As soon as night fell he'd try to suggest a rest…

As the sun began to drift closer to the western horizon conversation started up between the cousins. "So, Shimo-pup," Inuyasha half grunted his last name with something that might have been a fondness, "Who woulda won, if you hadn't gotten Rin to tame that old bastard Sesshomaru down again? Me or him?"

The hanyou was sneaking glimpses of Shimofuri over one shoulder as they walked so the young inuyoukai kept his gray-blue eyes lowered, watching the path and silently picking up the faint scent that Garou had left in his wake the last time he'd passed through that area. "I could not say for certain, Inuyasha-ituko." He answered, carefully.

"C'mon Shimo-pup," Inuyasha was smirking now when he glanced over his shoulder, "We might still be on Sesshomaru's land but that lame bastard's nowhere near us. He's probably too busy with Rin to even spare us a thought!" Shimofuri was surprised to hear what he thought might've been empathy in his cousin's voice.

"What do you mean?" he asked, quietly, in a detached, uncaring tone. He was trying to determine why Inuyasha's voice had changed, what secrets it bore…but Inuyasha's answer was obnoxious, completely missing the deeper implications.

Inuyasha chuckled suddenly, his shoulders jerking with the movement as Shimofuri stared at his back, "Don't tell me that pink bitch of yours hasn't explained the birds and the bees to you yet, pup!" he paused mid-step and threw the gray-eyed inuyoukai youth a careful look, "Or was that your father's job?"

Shimofuri averted his eyes. "I am not naive." He assured the hanyou, and stepped forward, pressing past Inuyasha to lead the way.

Inuyasha scowled. "Okay, so she _did_ tell you about it." He mumbled, letting his companion—hostage?—take the lead. He sensed through Shimofuri's stiffened gait that he'd touched on something bad or painful or unpleasant…or was it just that the inuyoukai was hiding something? He gritted his teeth behind the youth where he couldn't possibly see it, and fingered Tetsusaiga.

After a silence Shimofuri abruptly halted and gave one audible sniff. Inuyasha froze, tensing immediately.

"Trouble?" he barked, sniffing the air too, but finding nothing to his disgust, to hint at what might be alarming his cousin.

The gray-blue eyes were calm, without surprise. "No—but there is water nearby. Care for some fish, Inuyasha-ituko?"

The hanyou blinked dumbly for a second. "Yeah…" he followed Shimofuri as the younger demon pushed through the brush and under foliage until they had come near enough that Inuyasha's ears bent backward, trying to hide from the echoing roar of the river. He silently cursed his run-in with the mushroom spores earlier, why hadn't he scented this place earlier? It'd been a week or two since the last new moon, he knew that much…but could it really be close enough to dull his senses?

He watched Shimofuri with a suspicious glare on his cousin's back as the inuyoukai stood beside the water, silent but, somehow, he sensed, as deep and roiling as this river just underneath…the golden eyes narrowed, as if trying to pierce the stony, unaffected outer, and very prim and proper exterior that Shimofuri wore. Outrageously he even thought: _Maybe he planted those mushrooms on that trail to dull my damned nose so he could lure me here…_

Inuyasha swayed a little bit, tiredly, as he tried to force a manner of sanity back into his mind. _Gotta stay awake, gotta stay san—for Kagome and Koinu. Kagome and Koinu…must protect…_That thought acted like a steel rod on his spine and the hanyou was alert again, staring out of his golden eyes once more with a vengeance.

"Well Shimo-pup," he muttered, still maintaining a paranoid safe distance from the other demon, "You going to catch those fish or should I?" _I could use a dip in this freezing river to be sure—it'd keep me awake!_ He started to step forward, eager to let the cold water startle his mind and body into alertness, but Shimofuri's arm rose slightly, stopping the hanyou immediately.

"I will catch them, Inuyasha-ituko." The gray eyes slid over to silently ask permission of Inuyasha, and then shimmered with a moment of hesitancy before he voiced a suggestion that made the hanyou bristle with suspicion, "Perhaps you should rest while I am hunting…"

"Like hell!" he snorted, crossed his arms in a defensive, hostile stance, turning his nose up into the air, "And leave _you_ free to wander off? You and that idea can go straight to hell!"

Shimofuri's lips thinned into a tight line that Inuyasha read as frustration, and though he doubted the youth would try something so sneaky and dishonorable Inuyasha couldn't afford to let anything go wrong. Kagome and Koinu were the ones who would pay if he did…

"Forgive me, cousin," Shimofuri bowed deeply, "I have wronged you. You are a half-demon." his gaze was heavy on the hanyou, making him sweat, "You need rest and sleep."

Inuyasha stiffened, but there was no denying that he _did_ need to sleep. He tried to deny it nonetheless: "And you need to know when to shut up and let me do the damn fishing pup!" he cracked his knuckles to emphasize his threat, "Or you'll get my Tetsusaiga crammed through your guts!"

The young inuyoukai's jaw tightened, eyes narrowed in irritation. "You can't trust me, cousin? It is true that my mother ordered me to kill you but it is also true that I am not my mother's slave." The gray eyes gleamed, though whether it was a silent challenge or some remaining secrets the young heir had chosen not to reveal Inuyasha couldn't say.

"Feh! You're not?" Inuyasha sneered, apparently unimpressed with Shimofuri's claim. His ears were lying flat atop his head, his golden eyes openly suspicious, nearly downright hostile.

Shimofuri forced his expression to be calm, stony, removed. _I am not bothered by what he is saying, and my mother has no plans of taking his pup away from him and letting his mate die…_but his thoughts were empty and without the least conviction. Instead, when his gaze focused once more on the hanyou's vibrant, intense golden eyes—which mimicked his powerful, vivacious soul just underneath—he felt more guilt rush through him.

His jaw clenched hard as emotion returned to his face, exposing a rather devastated young dog demon that was left with little in his world that made sense. _Why can't I make myself hide the truth from him? He isn't family—he isn't like Tsukiyume or Mother. Mother gave me life, Mother raised me, nursed me, held me…I am Mother's heir…_but his mother was…

_Go on and think it. She's a monster. She loves only Tsukiyume and I. Everyone else she uses and throws away, even her own kin like Inuyasha—even **my own father…**_

The inuyoukai lifted his face with a grim new determination. "Lord Inuyasha," he dipped his head in a show of respect, addressing the hanyou formally, "I have no desire—or even the slightest interest—in killing you, whether my mother commands it or not…" he ignored Inuyasha's critical, unconvinced glaring, "I understand that you would not trust me—you are not a simpleton, despite what my mother thinks…"

A twitch started just under the hanyou's right eye, "So," he snarled, "Pinky Bitch thinks I'm dumb does she?" he snorted, "Wonder if she'll still say that when I'm beating the shit out of her."

"What my mother thinks is unimportant." Shimofuri shot back, impatiently, "What _is_ important is that in order to come out of this situation alive and well—"

"Feh!" Inuyasha interrupted though he made no further protest when Shimofuri paused with an angry, expectant glare that effectively silenced the hanyou's blustering.

"As I was saying, cousin, we must—or _should_ work together. We _should_ trust one another." The young heir held himself erect, tall and proud, trying to appear older and wiser than he truly felt while facing down his cynical, bad-tempered half-demon cousin…about to tell him something that would likely be akin to signing a death certificate.

Inuyasha noticed the change, sensed that something interesting was coming, and shifted his stance slightly. His ears swung forward, facing Shimofuri with open curiosity.

"It is because I am going to trust _you_, cousin, that I reveal this." He pinned the hanyou with his young but very somber, very deep blue-gray eyes and confessed the depth of his mother's vendetta: "My mother wanted you dead so she could claim your pup as her own."

For one, brief, surprising moment there came nothing from the hanyou: it took him a moment to connect the dots. _Send me off to do her dirty work, rescue her kid that she lost to this monster, kill the monster for her, and then her son, who conveniently came with me, kills me when I have my back turned…**then** she takes Koinu…_The golden eyes darted up, wide at first with the shock as it made sense—far too much sense actually—and then narrowed in the potent paternal rage of any father, dog demon or not.

The explosion came microseconds afterwards…

* * *

The heavily armored man bowed low before her, his metal-shielded body clanking and clunking awkwardly with the movement. His gray hair was bound high in a samurai-like topknot, his face; she thought cruelly, resembled a wrinkled prune. "Lady Taikokajin." He murmured her name in a rough tenor monotone. 

"Face me." she ordered with one tiny dip of her head in his direction for acknowledgement. She was in a hurry. "What are you called?"

The guard—from her brother's palace in the northern-most parts of the Middle Lands—ducked his head down again, paused before answering the inuyoukai woman. Taikokajin was a regal, proud, distant beauty. He could see her pink eyes glittering as she took him in from her safe, serene distance, like rubies caught in the snow, he mused. His lord was her brother—Sasugainu Koshoshiro—and though they shared the same features and the same surname taken from their father, he found the woman far different from Sasugainu. He hadn't the slightest idea which sibling was older, though Taikokajin seemed timeless; untouchable while Sasugainu was earthly and warmer in comparison…

He'd heard so many strange tales about her that when her messenger, a man by the name of Kentaro, ran through his lord's lands, he'd volunteered to serve in Ketaro's stead just for a glimpse of the demon lady. He'd always wondered why a female demon had been allowed to rule the Middle Lands when she clearly had a male blood relative—and that she ruled with two children but was without a husband or mate…

He was gaping at her, and not even aware of it.

Taikokajin's face, a serene mask, twitched, contorted. Her pink eyes hovered on him, drilling into him suddenly, becoming sharp like nails. Moments ago she had treated him decently, without real thought or care, now he had angered her, irritated her.

Her pale, uncolored lips moved again but still the man stared a moment, not registering that she had spoken, that she had asked him another question…finally his trance ended and he blinked, quickly coming to his senses. "My name, lady, is Ikamu."

The pink eyes narrowed in disgust. "Your name should be Sakana with the way you gape just like a fish—or Baka for your lack of intelligence." She half-growled.

Ikamu bit his tongue, held himself silent. He bowed slightly, mumbled something that he hoped was an apology, and cleared his throat to deliver the message that had been delivered from Lord Sesshomaru to Kentaro to Lord Sasugainu and then had finally passed into his keeping… "Lord Sesshomaru sends word that he will kill Inuyasha…"

Taikokajin sat up, paying close attention. The bright pink eyes glimmered in their mask of pale white, hope played in their depths.

"…But not when you, or anyone else, commands it."

The pink eyes narrowed dangerously and suddenly Taikokajin was anything but lovely or serene. She was a rumbling volcano of unrest—a promise of violence. Ikamu didn't risk turning his eyes on her again, merely waited for her to release him…chills coursed up and down his back as the time between his last words and his quick glance at her response to those words lengthened steadily.

A growl rose from her suddenly, and Ikamu could feel the waves of wrath rising from her, just as if the vibrations themselves were the emotion, reaching him through even the thick metal of his armor. Finally, just when he thought he couldn't restrain his shivers of fear any longer, she spoke.

"That _bastard!_" silently he gaped as the lady jumped to her feet, her long, dignified green and yellow kimono rippling about her elegantly in stark contrast to her irritated, jerky, stiffened steps. He risked looking up and saw that the pale face of distant, untouched beauty was now a reddened mask of fury.

Ikamu looked swiftly down again—but not before she'd caught his gaze. He could _feel_ her bristling glare directed straight back at him. Fear blossomed within him as he wondered if she would slay the messenger for the message he carried…

It was that fear alone that spared Ikamu from Taikokajin's deadly and fierce wrath. She stared at him for a long moment, inhaling that terrified scent and her fury dissipated into mere anger once more. The messenger was a stupid fool, she thought—but more importantly he thought of her as a goddess and her emotion scared the hell out of him.

The mask of rage faded into simple annoyance and she barked impatiently at him, "Get out, damn you!"

Ikamu did exactly as she wished, stumbling over his feet, his armor weighting him down as he sprinted out of her court, out of her sight. It was only after he was gone that Taikokajin's face relaxed and took on a smug, smirking expression. _Little fool, little wretched fool…and to think men consider themselves so proud and mighty…_

She turned to where Mitori, the maid she'd chosen currently to attend her, was sitting, her timid gaze pointed at the floors. "Get dinner prepared, Mitori." She snapped, stomping past the small woman, "And summon Inuyasha's mate to attend."

* * *

"That _fucking bitch!_" the hanyou spat out, looking almost rabid as he began pacing in a fit of rage, unable to keep still. Obscenities began pouring from his mouth like vomit and Shimofuri cringed, knowing that soon, after the initial shock and rage wore off, the suspicion, the cursing, would be turned on him. 

But for the moment the tirade continued—unceasingly aimed at his mother who was many miles away and completely unaware of his fury.

"That sneaky bitch sure as hell better not even _touch_ Koinu or I'll fucking tear her ass to shreds! Damn that bitch! She thought she could try that kinda shit with _me!_ I'll send her packing straight to hell so fast her head will be stuck in her ass!"

Inuyasha's blustering ceased and he seemed to have begun to think the situation over, pondering its different possibilities over in his head. His gaze was glazed over, unfocused. The golden orbs seemed muted momentarily, and Shimofuri decided to speak up, clearing his throat gently…it was a mistake.

There was a flash of movement as Inuyasha turned his stare on Shimofuri and his lips curled savagely. "_You…"_

"Inuyasha-ituko, I—" the said hanyou was unwilling to let the demon finish.

"You little shit!" his clawed hands fumbled for Tetsusaiga, ripped the legendary sword straight out of its sheath. There was a flash of light that momentarily spared Shimofuri from having to stare at his cousin as the hanyou came at him, shoulders hunched, eyes screaming for blood…

_Well this seems to be ending badly…_he noted that Inuyasha's eyes were flickering different colors, seeming to be caught between the normal amber and a orange-red shade that gave the half-demon a werewolf like look of bloodlust that made Shimofuri's guts clench up. _Tsukiyume has never done anything like that before…_as he watched a discoloration—one mark on each cheek—pulsed, alternately flashing and then fading away again. Shimofuri recognized them for what they were: the crests of a youkai. Inuyasha's demon blood marked him not as Sesshomaru's did, with two delicate maroon-purple streaks, but with single blue-purple slashes…like ripped and jagged flesh.

Though he doubted it would work, Shimofuri tried speaking reasonably to his cousin again—while backing away from him of course, "Inuyasha-ituko, I revealed to you what I did as a display of trust…"

"Fuck trust!" the hanyou snarled, but he _did_ stop his approach, though Tetsusaiga was still drawn and glinting in the light dangerously. The youkai markings had faded and Inuyasha's eyes had taken on the usual amber appearance again. Shimofuri hardly dared to hope it meant his cousin was withholding foolish violence.

"I felt that you should know the truth, cousin." He bowed a little to Inuyasha, though accomplishing that was hard, considering that the half-demon was brandishing a very powerful sword and Shimofuri didn't want to be hewn down at such a tender age, "I felt you needed to know that my mother is not likely to hold true to her word."

Tetsusaiga was still held up high and threatening. "You coulda mentioned something a little earlier, ya think, Shimo-kun?" he snarled.

Shimofuri bowed more deeply this time, forcing himself to trust in the volatile hanyou to play fairly and not strike him when he was so vulnerable. "With this reaction from you it didn't seem wise."

That seemed to catch Inuyasha's attention. Tetsusaiga dropped, resting against the ground, and when Shimofuri looked up he noted that his cousin appeared dull, tired, almost…despaired? In the hanyou's sweat he could easily scent the exhaustion. Inuyasha fretted over his mate and child, his strained and stressed mind, his lack of sleep, his difficult position with Shimofuri and Taikokajin, the troublesome task of hunting a demon whose scent he couldn't seem to hold onto…abruptly Shimofuri pitied the hanyou, and found himself saddened too at the thought of his own losses—Tsukiyume, the father he had barely known, the human monk who'd fathered Tsuki…and his mother's treachery, the shame he felt growing inside at her actions.

A thought that he hated—but somehow couldn't deny—filtered through his mind as he stared at Inuyasha: _We have both been wronged by the same woman here…my mother._

Shimofuri reached down to his belt and began to untie the black sash that held his own smaller, rapier-like sword in place, having come to a tough decision…

Inuyasha lifted Tetsusaiga uncertainly, "What are you doing, Shimo-kun?" he barked, scowling.

"I am leaving you, cousin, with my sword." He held up the sheathed blade for the hanyou to see, the sash still tied through it.

"And why is that?" Inuyasha's lips turned downward into an even fiercer scowl, "Where do you think you're going?"

Shimofuri cautiously tossed the blade—sheath and sash and all—just before the hanyou's feet. They landed in the dirt with a little cloud of dust. Inuyasha didn't spare the thing one glance.

"I am going to fins us both some fish, Inuyasha-ituko. My sword is your assurance that I am not leaving you and that I won't attack you while you are resting here."

"Feh! Like hell!" now he nudged the blade at his feet with a frown, unimpressed and disbelieving, "This little thing you'd leave with me in a second. Then you could go join that damn Lady Pink Bitch of yours…" he didn't add what they both, silently, knew he was thinking right after those words: _and steal my pup away._

Shimofuri lifted his nose proudly into the air. "I would never stoop so low as to leave you after I have pledged my word to you. I will stay with you until my sister is rescued—you forget, cousin, that I had reason to stay with you through until the end." He pinned Inuyasha sternly with his gray-blue eyes, "And as for my blade—it is _far_ from meaningless to me, and I would not give it up unless I were dead."

"How am I supposed to believe that?" Inuyasha demanded, growling irritably, though his amber gaze was interested and sharp—he wanted to accept what Shimofuri was saying as the truth.

"Look at the blade." The young heir ordered, his voice calm and expressionless, though his eyes were bright—_too_ bright. As Inuyasha snatched up the sword and unsheathed it, reading the characters engraved on the base, Shimofuri explained it aloud, "It is Ribikou—the sword that my father forged for me."

Inuyasha sheathed the blade, nodding slightly. His ears twitched and flicked forward and backward, a silent show of his uncertainty. "Your father huh?" he grunted, "And where is he now…?" though the hanyou's keen stare on the inuyoukai made it clear that he already suspected…

Shimofuri lowered his gaze. "My father—Haiseishoku—is dead…"

"Yeah, sorry to hear that, so is my old man." The hanyou dropped Ribikou gently to the dirt just as Shimofuri startled him into looking back up with a deep, pained growl. He raised one eyebrow, "Shimo-pup?"

"You do not understand, Inuyasha-ituko." The young demon pursed his lips, "My mother _killed_ my father for loving me, or so the rumors have always said."

Ears turned backward, face carved into a scowl; Inuyasha's mouth fell open, struggling to find something to say—but there was nothing. He could scent the pup's genuineness, his shame and grief. Only the very best of actors could have pulled off such an act, and from the way that Shimofuri's face often revealed the truth when he was trying so hard to lie, Inuyasha doubted his young cousin was a good actor at all. He would've trusted the demon with the first part of Ribikou's story alone—he knew that he'd never willingly leave Tetsusaiga with anyone else, though no one but he could touch it and use it. The unusual death of Shimofuri's father only added to Inuyasha's assurance…and to his distant but growing curiosity of the pup, as well as his obvious desire to cut down Taikokajin for her cruelty…

He sheathed Tetsusaiga, the sword slimming down into its untransformed, dinged up katana shape as it slid home. With noticeable respect he picked up Shimofuri's discarded Ribikou and began to tie the sash about his waist. "You might want to go hunt those fish up, Shimo-pup." He mumbled, quietly, "You and I have a lot to do still and—as I think you can understand—I want to get back to your Middle Lands and give your bitchy mother a little piece of my mind." He growled the last part out, unknowingly bearing his teeth at the sash as he finished tying it and looked up.

"Go on," he barked, seeing Shimofuri still watching him hesitantly, "I'll make a quick fire."

The bluish eyes narrowed at him, "Cousin, I am not foolish. _Sleep._"

Inuyasha crossed his arms, "Feh! You want your sword back or not, pup?" he threatened, though his amber gaze glinted with a docile annoyance that was bordering on amusement. "Now get going or _I'll_ do it and _I _won't share pup."

Shimofuri nodded once, "As you wish, cousin…" the young inuyoukai turned his back on the hanyou and, for a moment, an invisible wind seemed to gust about his body…and then, where a young man had stood before a blue-black furred dog the size of a large horse now shook its pelt out.

For a moment Inuyasha blinked at the change—and wondered why Shimofuri was so much smaller than Sesshomaru was in his true form—but his mind drew blank when the dog glanced back at him over its big-fuzz covered shoulder. Despite himself the hanyou's white ears turned backward in an instinctually defensive manner and he scowled at the bright, intelligent dog's gaze.

"Get out of here pup—I'm not going to sleep damn it!"

The dog turned its head away from him, black fur glinting an almost iridescent blue in the dying sunlight, and loped off, following the course of the river into the darkened woods.

* * *

Endnote: I haven't noticed how many have reviewed lately...but I know it's A LOT! I'm going to do this as quickly as I can to get this posted, so my answers will be quick and short, if there's anything at all, but of course, as usual: THANK YOU EVERYONE! 

The computer just ate a lot of my reviews...so this is going to be really brief, though I am glad to report that as of now my AOL is working for the moment...last time I posted for _I Miss You_ yesterday I think it wasn't. Sorry about this...

THANK YOU: **lynnie1-23** (What can I say? My bad...and she's weak, that's my only excuse.) **SomeoneInThePastOfEarth, kirarakitty, Yami Chikara, sarah** (soon...) **SlummyRedDragon, InuAndMiroku'sGirl Sango, orangepencils** (he's not Dracula exactly, but he does suck the life"blood" of hanyous, through their souls, so I guess he is a parasite...or just a tweaked Kikyo (smirks)) **Tiamath** (thank you!) **Shikou**(Don't be sorry! That you're contemplating fanart for my story is enough of an honor to me! I bow to you (and all others who've had plans of doing the same for this little story of mine) You honor me! I am unworthy!) **Prophet WolfStar** (Your review with the comment "I've got the pussy..." made me laugh so hard! It reminds me of a great joke that the computer ate when I was thanking reviewers the first time...(grumbles) so I'm low on time now, but someday I gotta share it with everyone, it's just a GREAT joke...) **The Moonless Night** (Never feel bad about the fanart...it's certainly not an assignment! I'm honored that anyone thinks about it even! Thank you!) **Sesshomaru13** (she strikes back next chapter a little...) **NefCanuck** (hehe...and next chapter we get more of Rin! (winks)) **angelpup, Inuadmirer** (I'm glad I can help alleviate some of it...you read _I Miss You?_ I can't recall seeing a review, but then again I'm not the smartest tool in the shed where memory is concerned...) **froggiesrcool** (hey! You reviewed _SWFM_ Thank you! The pluralization thing I've been told about before...but my sense of grammar and anal-retentive English speaking heritage make me, out of habit partially, pluralize them that way...sorry (sheepish grin) Nice name, Froggies ARE cool too! I love 'em!) **Simonkal of Inyu** (thank you! Writing isn't a "gift" like my mother always tells me when she pushes me to get something published, it's actually something that can be practiced and improved, so, though styles may differ, you could very well write "as good as" me! There have been many times when I realize I stink at this--just the other night I was reading something of mine and cringing the whole way through...ugh...what you said about Koinu "biting the hell" out of Momo made me laugh! I could just about see it too...and more and more of my reviewers, yourself included, are seeing Taikokajin as crazy...all i can say about this is that I'm LOVING everyone's reactions...I wanna giggle right now just thinking about it...hehe...) **Heather** (hehe...you tagged her! Just wait till next chapter...) **TheDarkAngel101, Bubba2007** (hey! Thank you! I hope to hear from you again soon! And don't worry, I didn't hear what you said (smirks)) **fanfiction1** (hehe...just as you get caught up I post a new one! (shakes her head) if you like Tsuki now I think you'll adore her later...unless my current plot-plan dies before I write it, next chapter does twist my original plan a bit, but I saw the oppurtunity and took it...I'm babbling now but you'll get it later. I think you might be like my oldest reviewer...(shakes head again)...wow...and whee! More Rin next chapter!) Preview Time:

_Shimofuri cut straight to the chase, remembering that time was of the essence. "Lady Rin, I must ask something of you…" _

_She smiled, grinning dazzlingly, genuinely amused at him. "Anything, Shimofuri-sama." She allowed the smile to change, twist into a tease, "You're the one who came and alerted me, after all, when my mate was so eager to stain the walls with blood again."_ (**Tiamath **I think it was your review that made me write Rin's comment here...(snickers))

Until next time!


	23. Unexpected Detours

**Disclaimer:** Naw, I don't own anything...cept maybe my own original characters...but since they're wrapped up in the IY world they're sorta not mine either, eh?

**A/N:** Ha! Kagome strikes back! Yep...for once I'm pretty sure I don't need to make a warning concerning Inuyasha's language. He only uses minor curses here. Rin returns...I believe next chapter shall be the dreaded, and anticipated showdown on the two fronts: one with Garou, the other with the ever-hated Pink Lady...there will be several chapters I think of it...Can never really tell anyone for sure you see b/c it sorta writes itself and some ideas never come until the spur of themoment. To get them the way I want them it might just take a while to write and edit and perfect...if you get bored _I Miss You_ is currently advancing wildly, despite my best efforts. (Yes, that one is having like post-writer's block recovery syndrome...eh...vaguely meaning after translation that I'm having trouble stopping writing that one...(sighs) which means that it's progressing a lot faster than this one at the moment, but this one is still coming...don't worry...I just keep thinking about the epilogue I have planned for this story...and I get giddy (giggles and sniggles)) Anyway: Go read _I Miss You_ if you're bored...

Also: I'd like to say that I am OPEN to anyone's ideas as to who should kill each of the bad guys and how and/or when and that sorta thing...call it the "Hit List."

Lastly: OVER 400 REVIEWS! WHEEE! I LOVE YOU GUYS! (blows kisses) Anyway...getting down to it...R and R! Enjoy!

**

* * *

****Unexpected Detour**

_Her legs shook beneath her, the muscles weakened, straining to support her weight. Though she felt this, and wanted only to lie back down under the scratchy blanket Kaede had given her, Kagome found that she couldn't. It was as if a puppeteer had come while she slept and tied steel rods to her legs—and was now, from a safe, unseen distance, controlling the wires._

_She was cold inside, and withdrawn. When she looked up her vision was cloudy, her mind fogged, and her head awash in pain that she couldn't localize. She wanted to call for help, to moan with the pain, but her throat refused to move…it reminded her of trying to move while she was still half-dreaming, as if she were drugged. _

_An old, gray-haired woman appeared in her sight. Her lips moved, Kagome recognized that the old woman—the healer, Kaede—was trying to help her back to her resting spot on the floor of the hut. She carried an earthen bowl in her hands and as Kagome's puppet legs pushed past the elderly woman the water sloshed with her foreign strength. _

_Kaede's eye—the one that was uncovered by the eyepatch—widened. Kagome heard her words dimly through the hazy world of her drugged, weakened mind. "Kagome, you should be resting…what's wrong?" _

_Her arms lifted, hesitated, and Kagome realized, with a jolt, what was about to happen. Her heart shuddered and she tried to cry out, tried to warn the old woman…**Please! Kaede! Stay away from me! I am not in control of my body!**_

_But her throat refused to listen and the puppeteer continued to pull on the strings that forced her to move against her will. A strength flowed through her that burned her veins, made the haze in her head buzz with pain. Instinctively she knew that it was a demonic energy, not a priestess's pure spiritual energy. It warred with the strength that resided within her own soul, giving her a tiny measure of remaining will and consciousness. _

_Her senses dulled but she was still able to watch as her own hand swiped out at Kaede's arm and shoulder, a bright, golden energy formed claws at the ends of her fingers…crimson spilled into the air and Kagome screamed and raged within her own mind and her body—both of which had suddenly become a cage to her. _

_Kaede slumped, gasping, and fell away. Kagome tried to still her legs, tried to make them stop, but the puppeteer was ruthless. She walked on, out of the hut, unknowing of what had befallen the old priestess. She stopped straining against the invisible strings, focused on staying sane. The strength of the demon's energy that channeled through her weakened when exposed to her spirit's power, and Kagome realized that it was likely she could, with enough strength, break through it…_

_And then she saw him. _

_Her legs—still at the mercy of the evil puppeteer's jerks and tugs—had brought her to a long, misty bridge. She cringed as those legs carried her out over the abyss, with nothing but the thin planks of wood to separate her from the moist, thick air of the chasm…and then her senses swam with horror. _

_Another shape had appeared in her way, a red shadow—topped by two adorable dog-ears. Her heart pounded inside her, but her legs kept moving, slowly but surely. She tried to speak, tried to move her facial muscles to send him some silent warning—but nothing happened. Soon he'd seen her as well and rushed to see if she was all right. Her legs stopped when her body collided with the hanyou, and though she raged inside she did nothing as his arms slid around her, as he leaned his face against the top of her head…_

**_No! Not Inuyasha! Please, get away from me!_**

_But her silent pleas went unvoiced, and the puppeteer strengthened his hold on her with a vengeance. _

_The foreign demonic strength tore through her veins again, ripped at her soul. **No!** _

_But she could do nothing as her hands came up to the hanyou, as if to return his embrace…and the gold-yellow claws reemerged, like Sesshomaru's energy whip, from her fingers._

_Her efforts to break through the control were rewarded with just a little whisper, "Inuyasha…"_

_And then she saw her hands drive the golden, glowing claws through his body, and her mind screamed for him, splintered apart when the bright red of his blood stained her white priestess's garb…_

(A/N: Boom! Scene change! Present time!)

With a weak, shuddering cry, Kagome's eyes snapped open, her breathing hard, ragged. Her vision was blurred—she could tell even in the dimness of the room. Pain tore through her skull and she moaned, though even her throat fought that action. The dream was still so fresh and raw in her mind. Fearfully she raised a hand and probed her cheek, finding cold tears there.

And suddenly it came to her: _I know what's wrong with me…_

When Menomaru the moth demon had taken control of her through his spell Kagome had felt the same, draining weakness, the hazy focus, the dulled senses…the fatigue. When she pushed past the initial pain and investigated the inner recesses of her mind she found it: the lingering tingle of a spell—and just as Menomaru's spell had carried the sickening aura of the demonic energy, so too, did this one.

_But who…? How…?_

Her jaw clenched when an answer came: Taikokajin…

Anger was like a crutch, it propelled her through suffering and through pain. Kagome used it for all it was worth, pushing herself up, blinking at the world around her.

_Koinu…_she spotted the pup, playing at the edge of the furs, giggling innocently. Her relief made her shiver, made the pain swell until she gasped, clutching her head. When it finally subsided slightly Kagome was trembling in near-exhaustion, sleep beckoned welcomingly—but Kagome steeled herself, her powerful miko's will, against such a thought.

Stay awake, Kagome. Stay awake if you want to live to see your son grow up—if you want to hold Inuyasha in your arms again, if you want to have more babies to show your family…She had to fight.

Kagome slowly, painfully, reached forward, grabbing up her son cautiously. Her arms shook.

The pup squealed eagerly, moving toward her grasp. His little ears wiggled uncoordinatedly and the big, innocent blue eyes sparkled up at her lovingly. When she held him to her chest he wrapped his arms around her neck, familiar with the routine, and snuggled into the small hollow where her neck met her collarbone. His warm, gentle breath against her skin was a beacon, leading Kagome's weakened mind back from the brink, feeding it.

Koinu's ears tickled her chin and neck, making Kagome smile tenderly. She nuzzled his fuzzy, silver-haired head and the pup began to coo against her softly.

His weight, his warmth in her arms, focused Kagome's strength, her will and soul. Carefully she reached inside herself, stroking the dormant power of the miko. It flared within her, feeding her energy she didn't know that she had. She assessed it, shaped it, honed it…and then sought out the place deep within her that was fragmented and torn by the demon's spell…

Pain raced through her and Kagome whimpered to herself, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. Koinu's cooing was lost to her outer senses, the real world faded as her struggle turned inward.

This demon's magic was like Tsubaki's, dark, forbidden—and ancient. Menomaru's demonic energy had warred with her spiritual strength in the past, but Kagome remembered that Tsubaki's had been far worse. Dark magic was the miko's pure magic gone all wrong, and there was only one way for Kagome to correct it: purification.

Sensing his mother's pain and suffering, Koinu whimpered and started to cry against her, making small, childish sounds. His white ears turned backward, he snuggled into Kagome's skin, trying to get her to comfort him—but from his mother there came nothing but tenseness, the shaking of her muscles, and the gleam of sweat breaking out on her brow.

When his tears began to spill, and his cries grew a little louder, a little more insistent and fearful, and still there was no answer from his mother; Koinu became genuinely scared. His sense of smell was keen and although he didn't yet understand the world or the people living in it, he was instinctually programmed to understand and decipher a few select scents. Things like fear, blood, pain, milk and rage. Now, from his mother, he scented pain, and reacted by screaming louder, calling for help from his father, blood to blood…

* * *

Inuyasha jerked and twitched in his sleep, restlessly. Three hours before Shimofuri had left him in his true form to go fishing, trusting his father's sword, Ribikou, with the hanyou. Though he had set about to make a fire—which he had—and pace until his cousin returned, his exhaustion had gotten the better of him: Inuyasha had fallen asleep, perched high in a tree near the river. 

But his sleep was light and troubled. He dreamed immediately—nightmares almost exclusively…

He watched Kagome suffer from years long past, Kikyo shot the arrow that pinned him to the Sacred Tree time after time after time. Miroku was sucked into his own wind tunnel, Sango slain by her little brother Kohaku mercilessly. Naraku tortured Koinu Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai, making them battle one another to the death. Shippo was torn limb from limb by a huge white dog with golden eyes (Sesshomaru!) but no, wait, the eyes were pink now (Taikokajin!)…and then the dog was black and shimmering as it snarled at him, the blue-gray eyes shining red in the middle (Shimofuri!). A swirling black shadow descended over Koinu's crying, helpless form, sucked the life right out of him even as Inuyasha screamed and cursed it, hacked at it with Tetsusaiga for all he was worth…and _nothing_ touched it.

The shadow swept toward him then too, leaving Koinu silent and dead, torn to fleshy, horrifying bits in its wake…

He jumped awake, eyes wide in terror, ears swiveling wildly. "What the—" he stopped himself as the sound of the river reached him, the drone of night crickets. _Only dreams_…but he didn't feel comforted. In the wake of Naraku's death he'd often felt as if he weren't _really_ safe, but since mating and marrying Kagome that had been eased a bit—she tended to help him that way, steadying him like a second half. And dreams of losing a child, especially a tiny baby, were something he'd had ever since he learned Kagome was pregnant in the first place…but the shadow?

He scowled unhappily. The dream had left a scent with him, buried inside the shadow: Garou's stench.

Inuyasha's hands clenched into fists, tight with worry and determination. _I will die myself before I lose Koinu_. He vowed, snarling at the dim embers of the fire he'd lit just after Shimofuri had vanished down the river.

_Where is that Shimo-pup anyway?_

The hanyou started to rise from his treetop perch only to stop, his amber eyes alight from the inside, his ears still as stone, his body stiff. After a moment he blinked and his ears turned backward, disturbed. He looked back over his shoulder over the river and toward the distant Middle Lands in the east. His heart rate had picked up, his senses alert.

_Something's wrong…Koinu!_

* * *

The door to the room Kagome and Koinu were being kept in slid open, a shadow looked in on them, hesitant, cautious. "Lady Inuyasha?" 

Kagome collapsed exhaustedly into the white furs, breathing in sharp, winded gasps. Koinu's crying continued unabated, though his ears were turned in the direction of the door and the waiting maid attentively.

When she felt she was no longer going to pass out from the pain, Kagome reached for her pup with shaking hands, stroked his head, his hair, tweaked his ears. The child's cries quieted, settled into timid whimpering instead. He turned into her touch, basking in it, welcoming her return.

"Lady Inuyasha?" the maid at the door repeated stepping into the room and bowing, though Kagome still hadn't—couldn't—sit up to face her. "Lady Taikokajin requests your presence while she eats."

Through Kagome's pain-wearied mind came one clear thought: _Taikokajin isn't the one responsible for this spell on me; she is an inuyoukai, not a dealer in black magic._

_Then who…?_

Someone Taikokajin had hired, maybe…she would have to find out from the Pink Lady herself.

"Lady Inuyasha?" the maid asked again, her voice beginning to sound frightened, "Are you all right?"

With all the willpower Kagome could muster she pulled herself up, clutching Koinu to her, and turned her head slowly to face the maid. "I will not eat with your mistress." She whispered, her voice weak and breathless.

"What?" the maid stammered, obviously taken by surprise.

"I said that I refuse to eat with her. Bring my food here, if you would. If your mistress wishes to see me," Kagome paused, her strength and her lungs failing her again for a moment, "Let her come and see me. I won't go to her."

"Yes, Lady Inuyasha."

* * *

The voiceless call passed and Inuyasha's heartbeat slowed, his ears slowly drifted forward again. The tenseness left him in the whoosh of a massive, deep sigh. _A figment of my imagination?_ He wondered, idly. Surely that could explain it—he'd just dreamed of losing Koinu so horrifically, it made sense for him to imagine things that didn't really exist or were impossible. 

With a nervous, uncertain shake of his head, Inuyasha turned back to the dim fire and leapt down to stoke and tend it once more. When it was roaring high and happily again he sulked next to it, waiting, watching…but still there was no sign of Shimofuri or the fish he'd promised to return with either. Worry gnawed on Inuyasha's insides but he ignored it, counseling himself with a lame, but possible solution to the youth's lateness: _Shimo-pup might be a clumsy hunter…or afraid of water…? Perhaps it will be deer tonight then—**if** he can catch one._

But as he stayed still and continued to wait, sleep grew increasingly tempting, and soon Inuyasha had dozed off right where he was sitting.

* * *

_I can't believe I'm doing this…_

Shimofuri's tongue was lolling out of his mouth, flapping in the breeze, like a common mutt. Determinedly he ignored the ache in his legs, the cramps beginning to form in his guts, and the tearing, cold rasp of the spring air on his raw throat. He flew through the shadows of the forest, between the trees, dead leaves, dirt, grasses, mushrooms and ferns all trampled into oblivion underneath his fleeting paws.

He was heading west, sprinting back the way he and Inuyasha had walked all that day and the night before—from Sesshomaru's castle. What he and the hanyou had covered in bipedal form in what amounted to one full day, 24 hours, of simple walking Shimofuri hoped he could cover in less than four hours of pure sprinting in his true form. Four hours there and back again, making eight total, perhaps nine if Sesshomaru were slow in meeting him…he would be back to the hanyou with food hopefully before dawn. With how tired Inuyasha was Shimofuri doubted that the hanyou would truly miss him, or worry, at least he hoped that was true.

_If this is wrong—please Sesshomaru, don't kill me yet, I'd like to rescue my sister first…_

He'd left Inuyasha hours before fully intending to catch the fish as slowly as possible to give the hanyou some resting time, but had quickly been convinced otherwise when he caught the lingering scent of someone he hadn't scented in years…the scent had so stunned Shimofuri that his paws had slid out from underneath him and he'd found himself sprawling clumsily in shock. Following the scent for a short distance Shimofuri had come to a brief break in the trees, where the moonlight shined in—and lingering in that milky light was the shadowy silhouette of a man.

But to Shimofuri's gray-blue eyes, and to his nose, it was no ordinary man—in fact, it wasn't even a real man it all…it was the ghost of one. Without hesitation he had transformed back into his humanoid, bipedal form and rushed to the man. He'd had to withhold the desire to embrace the man, to shed tears of pain and grief for him, even though from the very moment he'd set eyes on the misty, semi-transparent shape, he'd known that it was either an illusion of the mind or merely a ghost. But he'd restrained his emotions, remembering that he was no longer a young, exuberant pup and was far closer now to being a lord, a proud and regal warrior among the dog demons.

When he'd come to within ten feet of the ghost, shimmering in the moonlight, Shimofuri had spoken the specter's name, using the same familiarity and honor that he had when he'd last known the man before his untimely—and most unfair—death. "Kokoro-sama? Houshi-sama?"

And the spirit had turned to face him, the robes of the monk, and the staff he'd carried with him, all eerily silent, another testament to the man's true nature as deceased. But when Shimofuri had looked to the ghost's face—with its unmistakable long shape, the broad jaw and the lengthy nose with the tiny kink in it from an old battle wound—he had no doubt about the ghost's identity, whether real or fake.

That was how he'd come to be panting in exhaustion at the gates of Sesshomaru's palace once again, catching his breath before he begged to be admitted. And, indeed, he was sure certain, and quite accurate, in assuming that he would have to beg. The guards that met him at the gates after he'd taken on his humanoid form once again had blinked at him dumbly for a moment before scowling in familiarity. They'd promptly refused to allow him in.

So it was that Shimofuri fell to begging—and then, when that didn't work, to trickery and backdoors. "The Lady Rin would be very much interested in hearing what I have to tell her and her lord." It was only that, oddly enough, that made them listen. He convinced them to deliver a message to Rin, using a small orphan boy who worked the stables named Shero, while he waited for her order.

A surprisingly short time later Shero returned and the guards begrudgingly allowed Shimofuri to enter. The boy cheerfully escorted him into the castle, despite the obscene hour at which he'd arrived. He waited, with the boy still present, in the court, to be received. When the inevitable rustling of robes came and the door to the hall slid open, Shimofuri immediately fell into a deep bow of respect, starting to murmur Sesshomaru's name—until he caught sight of the visitor's gentle steps, the small, white-socked feet peeking out from underneath a cream colored kimono robe.

He stammered stupidly, his eyes glued to the floor, though he tried to watch the other person's movements in a slow realization. "Lo—_Lady_ Rin…"

"It's fine, Shimofuri-sama," a small, gentle voice greeted him, "You don't need to be formal with me, this will be short."

He looked up, trying not to appear as if he were staring so obviously at her, but it was hard not to. Little more than a day ago when he'd last seen the lady Rin she'd been finely dressed, though clearly relaxed and not expecting company. Now, and considering the late hour he didn't blame her in the least, Rin was plainer, softer perhaps, more of a woman than of a beautiful girl with a woman's soul. Her face was shiny with natural oils left over from sleep, her hair pinned up in the laziest bun he'd ever seen…his mother had _never_ looked so casual or fatigued, not even when she was giving birth to Tsukiyume. Yet despite it all she was still beautiful…she reminded Shimofuri of Inuyasha's mate somewhat, he mused, as he stared—or rather, as he tried not to.

"My lady." He offered, bowing again, and he heard Rin give a tiny sigh. When he glanced up she was shaking her head, smiling lightly.

"You'll never loosen up, will you? All you inuyoukai are alike I think, so stoic on the outside, but wild within…" he didn't miss the secret smirk in her gleaming eyes.

Shimofuri cut straight to the chase, remembering that time was of the essence. "Lady Rin, I must ask something of you…"

She smiled, grinning dazzlingly, genuinely amused at him. "Anything, Shimofuri-sama." She allowed the smile to change, twist into a tease, "You're the one who came and alerted me, after all, when my mate was so eager to stain the walls with blood again."

He bowed again, trying to cover the instinctual blush, "It was nothing, my lady…"

"Well, it was something to me, Shimofuri-sama. I shall remember you fondly, and a favor for you is no trouble." She smiled a little again, though her eyes were growing steadily more tired, and her gaze turned to Shero, who was still sitting in the room with them. "Shero!" she beamed, "Come sit with me."

The boy, returning the same eager smile to Rin, scuttled across the room to kneel beside her—so close he was almost in her lap. "Rinrin, I've missed you!" he gushed, clinging to one of her arms.

She returned his affection with a hug—but during the exchange Shimofuri caught onto the young woman's pain. It was in her eyes, in her slightly stiffened movements, in the weaker, twitching smile she offered him. She cared deeply for the boy but something about him hurt her in some way Shimofuri couldn't yet understand…he ignored it and pressed onward.

Clearing is throat, Shimofuri began his request, "I need you to ask Lord Sesshomaru to reconsider lending us—Inuyasha and myself—aid in destroying the demon that we seek…"

Her gaze was keen when she stared at him, and the same pain that she'd had when interacting closely with Shero before was in her eyes again. "You said that this was on a matter that could affect my children…" the corners of her lips twitched, fighting either a smile or a frown, though what exactly she was fighting and why confused the young inuyoukai. "I assume then, that you're speaking of the hanyou-eating monster again?"

He nodded, solemnly. "Yes, my lady…Sesshomaru's help in the battle that lies ahead will be direly missed if he refuses to lend it."

Rin's eyes lit up again, the same smirking, knowing light that had lived in her gaze during their last meeting when she had called a truce essentially returned now with a vengeance. "I shall make it my personal duty that my mate is made aware of your wishes…" only Shero failed to catch Rin's mischievous glee. Shimofuri himself fought a blush, remembering her earlier tease…_Sesshomaru certainly found a feisty one…she is **very** open in her desire for him…_

Only a short time later he was running once again, his tongue loose and flapping spittle in the breeze, for all he was worth. His progress heading back to Inuyasha was slower than the first time around because his first stores of energy had been used up. His muscles burned, his lungs shook, his throat was raw as if sandpaper had been rubbed over it for hours on end…but Shimofuri never once stopped to rest, not until he was back alongside the river that he'd left Inuyasha near.

The sky had begun to turn a blue-gray that matched his humanoid form's hair when Shimofuri finally returned to the spot he'd left his cousin at—and immediately smirked seeing that the hanyou was out as if in a coma. He clutched the tails of the three fish he'd caught for the hanyou and cleared his face of all amusement as he approached his lightly snoring cousin.

"I thought that you weren't going to sleep, cousin." He murmured, keeping his face expressionless as he ran each of the fishes through with a stick and placed their skewered bodies over what remained of the fire. Inuyasha jerked awake groggily at his reappearance and swiftly sat up, scowling unhappily at being caught off-guard.

"Well you took so _damn_ long Shimo-pup…" the frown on his face deepened when he noticed that in his time asleep the fire had gone out and the fish weren't going to cook very fast. He threw his cousin a glare. "Just give them to me raw pup—we need to be moving."

Shimofuri paused, his clawed hands still occupied with skewering the last fish. When the gray-blue eyes met Inuyasha's golden, irritated glower he allowed a frown to ripple his face. "You will get sick, Inuyasha." His words, contrary to the uncertainty he cultivated, sounded tired, exhausted.

"Feh! As if!" seemingly to prove his words, Inuyasha snatched up on of the skewered fish, tore the body free from the stick and gulped the thing down without so much as a grimace. "I eat raw stuff all the time, pup!" he reached for the second fish even as he rose to his feet, preparing to leave.

Blankly Shimofuri watched as Inuyasha tossed Ribikou to him, still chewing on the last half of his second raw fish. "Whatcha standing there for, Shimo-pup?" he gestured at the sword, "Strap it on and give me that last fish." His amber eyes lost any mirth at that moment and he finished in a growl, "We gotta a soul-sucker to kill."

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Endnote: THANK YOU! YAYS! (THROWS A BIG PARTY! COOKIES FOR ALL!) 

THANK YOU: _**SomeoneInThePastOfEarth, SerenaClearwater**_(Hey! My dad loves Legend of Zelda!) _**Prophet WolfStar**_(Hehe, I LOVE writing Sesshy like this. I watched the latest AdultSwim episode where he saved Kagome and company and then when Inuyasha comes and demands what happened Kagome says that he saved them and immediately Sesshy denies it and says he just killed the guy b/c he "couldn't answer my questions." But I think he just couldn't stand to see a pretty girl in trouble, cuz I didn't hear him asking too many questions before he just killed the guy. Also my little sister theorizes that Sesshy must kill all ugly things to better the gene pool...but that's just a joke--like that's why he hates Naraku too, it's his "greasy" hair--so I think it could fit him...for a pretty and innocent face he might very well have a soft spot...) _**TheDarkAngel101**_(Yes, you and a small army...Taikokajin has a big red X on her for execution...) _**Yami Chikara**_ (Hope to keep pleasing!) _**Heather**_ (Perhaps, but without the rude-mouth and the gruff exterior. He's a lot younger and vulnerable still in my mind. Interesting observation. Perhaps Shimo-kun is what Inuyasha could've been if he were raised by his father and not his human mother.)_** orangepencils**_ (LOL I oughtta start a club called the Hit List...start sending me emails and reviews full of ideas for who shuold kill them and HOW...hehe...though I'm starting to have an idea...) _**kirarakitty**_ (You're probably right, I haven't read it over...(cringes) I hope this chapter's better...It's like one of those things when someone's talking in front of an audience and they start saying "Um" and you notice once and then you can't stop yourself from noticing it EVERY single time afterwards, eh?) _**inuyasha'sbabe07**_ (I hope this answered your question about Kagome...there'll be more next chapter too! WHEE!) _**SlummyRedDragon**_ (Oh! Can I call you Slummy? I've had the biggest urge to for so long now, you're a regular and I giggle when I notice think about your name...I'm not sure why...I guess I see a red dragon in like a big black Hoodie like me currently or something hanging "downtown" or in "the ghetto." Actually my hometown is called a "ghetto" ...ah life is weird, no?) _**InuAndMiroku'sGirl Sango**_ (I mightmake one-shots with Shimo-kun's back story explained, and maybe he'll make appearances in other fictions...I can't seem to get rid of him now that he's here! (grins) I'll find a way to make that epilogue include Shimo-pup too...every pup has his day...) _**NefCanuck**_ (yes, originally can you believe I meant for him to be a simple character? (coughs at her own stupidity) He sorta sprang to life on his own...he's sorta the personification of the child we all once were (or well, most of us I think anyway) who realizes the parent(s) they thought were heroes are only human after all...course his mother is a lot more evil than most...) _**Simonkal of Inyu**_ (You had sorta a premonition I think, b/c in this chapter Shimofuri sees Tsuki's father actually...that guy's story is a story all in itself! Ah! As to who shall do the killing...I haven't decided yet. I have an idea, but anyone with a suggestion is free to review or email it into me...I do read anything and everything that comes in there as long as I know it's not trash...) _**fanfiction1**_ (hehe, thank you! You bring up a lot of things! WOW! I think you're the only one who's mentioned Pinky's past, like what could've made her the way she is. B/c she's my character I did actually come up with that story...but I won't tell it here (grins) And nope, I don't plan on killing Tsuki. The dinner invite isn't for poisoning, Taikokajin has other plans that are a lot meaner actually for a mother to have to suffer through...and that will be revealed next chapter...) Tiamath (THANK you! That's a BIG compliment, b/c it means I've done a pretty decent job if you can forget that the characters are "made up"...(grins proudly) now, if I can put that into something non-fanfiction and get myself published...(sighs))


	24. Old Ghosts

**Disclaimer:** Sadly I am but a poor youth, somewhere between being a teen and a woman, I am not rich...so how would it be possible that I could own Inuyasha and company? Yes, the rumors you have heard are true: I don't own any of them.

**A/N:** This chapter has quite a lot of action to start off with. Taikokajin has come for what she wants, and if it isn't handed over she plans on taking it by force...but Kagome is, of course, tougher than she expected. Even from Koinu I have planned some uncalculated resistence to miff Taikokajin...hehe...Also Shimo-kun and Inu have reached within scent distance of Garou's den, but Shimo-pup is hesitating, waiting for Sesshy, and you shall discover why he bothered seeking out Inu's older brother againlast chapter as well. Also, for anyone who didn't understand (I know one reviewer said that she didn't understand Shimo-kun and Kokoro's visit but I'll bet there were others) the appearance of the ghost of the monk who fathered Tsukiyume, named Kokoro, is explained in a flashback here. I deliberately left out the conversation last chapter, only saying that Shimofuri saw him. You'll see here what Kokoro had to say to his favorite "pup." Hehe...I have so much backstory here it's coming out my ears...AH! Well as usual **_Inu potty mouth_** warning...he's frustrated as usual. Anyway...I think that's it...Enjoy!

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****Old Ghosts**

Koinu nestled against her, cooing. She'd nursed him again, which never failed to please the pup, and now thoroughly satiated, he was glad to simply cling to her as he fell slowly asleep. His ears had become an early warning system for her: they twittered and pressed against his little skull when another's footsteps came through the hall. Always the pup's ears moved before she was aware of the approaching presence, which allowed her to prepare herself for confrontation, if it came to that…

_Taikokajin will come for Koinu soon._ She knew this, though she tried to tell herself that she was being paranoid. Why would the dog demon try to take her child when she had two of her own, one of which was traveling with Inuyasha as a sort of prisoner…was she really so stupid? Kagome worried for Inuyasha too but she doubted, after everything she'd seen her hanyou fight over the long years, that Taikokajin, her son, or even the monster they'd been sent out to slaughter could scratch Inuyasha.

Or so she prayed.

The pup's ears moved, tickling her chin, setting Kagome immediately tense. Looking up she watched the shadows as they moved through the hall, waiting for the shape of a person in flowing, regal robes to sweep over the light. A shadow descended over the screens, a hand clasped the door, and Kagome forced Koinu's cooing baby lips against her neck, drawing her strength from him.

The night had passed since she'd openly defied Taikokajin and no punishment had come for it. But Kagome was far from fooled—it was coming. She was stronger than she had been the day before, indeed, stronger than she had been in weeks, and her confidence and her maternal instincts had both tightened like fists. Whatever monster that held her soul under the strange spell Kagome's attack the day before had weakened it—both the spell and the evil holder of the magic.

_As soon as Taikokajin leaves again I'll deal with the rest of the spell easily enough._

To Kagome's brief surprise the person who stepped inside her room was not, in fact, Taikokajin, as she'd been certain that it would be. It was instead the middle-aged maid Momo, who was quickly followed by another maid whose name Kagome didn't know, but suspected it was Mitori, the maid who'd discussed Taikokajin's desire to steal Koinu away in the hallway weeks ago. When the two women knelt before her and bowed, murmuring "Lady Inuyasha," to her in unison, Kagome was sure. Their voices rang clear in her memories.

Koinu cooed against her, trying to turn his head and watch what was happening. Kagome blew into his ear, making the pup giggle and squirm in her arms. She waited, carefully ignoring them in favor of playing with Koinu. She was determined to let them expose their agendas to her, rather than let herself willingly walk into whatever lies they'd had planned. She sensed that they knew of her illness, and were surprised that she was so light and seemingly healthy…_they've underestimated me_…Kagome tried hard not to smile, but the attempt failed so she hid what she knew must be a smug expression—likely mimicking Inuyasha's—by nuzzling her nose and chin into Koinu's fuzzy silver-haired head.

The maids finally spoke. It was Momo who broke the silence between the adults first, but her cold tone and demeanor did nothing to "break the ice" that had frozen the room as far as conversation went. All three of them understood this was not a normal interaction, and none of them really tried to hide it.

"Our mistress is not pleased with your behavior as a guest in her home." Momo started, her face still kissing the floor in her low bow. Mitori had remained bowing as well. When Kagome had ignored them etiquette had demanded they remain bowing until she acknowledged them.

Kagome didn't bother looking up at them when she spoke, "She hasn't treated me much better than a prisoner."

The maids sat up, their faces stony. "Our mistress bid us to inform you that by now your mate has likely found the adversary he was sent out to destroy." This was Mitori's quiet voice. Unlike Momo, whose eyes shone with a dark fierceness that made Kagome's palms sweat, Mitori maintained a distant 'I-don't-care-about-any-of-this' look on her face. The look did little to pacify Kagome's rising anger.

"Does that mean she's going to start treating me better?" she looked up at them this time, trying to keep her expression dull and tired. She didn't want either of them—any of them, for she sensed that these two weren't the only ones within earshot—to know how much she had managed to recover.

Of course the maids ignored her barb. "Your mate will not survive the encounter." Momo muttered, brown eyes vicious.

For a moment there was silence, and Kagome looked between the two of them, still trying to hide her amusement. _If I had a nickel for every time some idiot says that about Inuyasha…_She laughed then, unable to avoid it, and when she looked up again the maids were staring at her with sudden confusion. Their expressions prompted even more laughter out of her.

"Did you want him dead…?" Mitori's quiet, baffled voice filtered into her amusement even as Momo turned to slap the other maid to silence her.

Kagome caught herself and shook her head, "You guys must be dumber than I thought!"

Both maids looked stricken stupid. They stared at her as if her head had suddenly inflated with hot air and started to fly away. Momo's eyes narrowed as she wondered if perhaps the young miko woman had been driven mad by the dark magic that haunted her soul, but she looked strong enough…that had been what had driven Taikokajin to invite the woman to dinner. She wanted to observe the young mother herself, and then, of course, she'd wanted to take the pup away from her before Garou was killed—for the moment he died the spell that kept the miko weakened would come to an end with him. Then it would be much harder to grab the pup away from her.

But Kagome had refused the offer, knowing better, and now she laughed in their faces when they assured her that her mate would soon be dead.

Momo glanced to Mitori and muttered, "She's mad…"

"Of course I am!" Kagome frowned at them, her fists bunching up, "You idiots think that you can keep me here like this and kill Inuyasha out there?" she snorted, unimpressed, "Do you know how many times someone has threatened Inuyasha that way?" she looked to the door, sensing by the way Koinu's ears were flickering against her chin, and by the way he was sniffing loudly—just like his father tended to do when scenting something—that someone else had come into their little party. _Taikokajin._

"I mean how stupid is your mistress? Does she want her son to be killed? Inuyasha has a temper, believe me, I know! I can't believe you idiots!" the miko energy bubbled in her, ready to spring awake at her command, but Kagome settled it for the moment, hesitating as the shadow of the inuyoukai woman she'd been waiting for loomed up against the still open doorway…

Koinu whimpered, sensing his mother's magic rousing just beneath her skin. His ears flattened instinctively. His distress distracted Kagome for a moment, making her take her eyes away from the maids and the approaching presence of the demon woman. She cuddled and nuzzled him for a moment, letting go of the magic she'd summoned. A thought filtered through her abruptly and she smirked into her little son's hair: _Is this what it felt like to Inuyasha for years and years while he was defending me from Kouga? Koinu doesn't like my magic because he's part demon so it's going to be really hard to protect him from that pink-eyed monster, but I have to do it! Just like Inuyasha knew I hated him fighting Kouga but he felt he had to do it…_

"A bitch with such confidence in her mate has doomed not only herself but also her offspring." Came the dry, cold voice from the doorway that Kagome had been waiting for. The young mother jerked her gaze up, eyes wide.

Taikokajin's long, fair strands of hair flowed down past her shoulders, a waterfall of ice, as long as Sesshomaru's. The clothes that adorned her were not her usual extravagant, colorful kimonos; instead it was a warrior's garb. Like Sesshomaru she bore spiky armor that ran along her shoulders, covering her waist. Her legs were plated with carefully shaped sheet metal that gleamed even in the dim light of the room that, to Kagome, doubled as her prison. The demon woman's kimono came only to her thighs and was dark purple, almost black. Her leggings were the same color and tight as a second skin.

She looked like a cross between Sesshomaru and a samurai warrior, and for a moment Kagome gawked, unable to restrain her awe at these dog demons that she had seemingly married—mated?—herself into. _Talk about not fitting in with them…but if it means I have to be a stony, murdering, heartless bitch then I'll pass._

Kagome shifted Koinu against her, trying to make sure the pup was safe even as she stared Taikokajin fearlessly, pink meeting the natural human brown. "The only one here who's acted wrongly is you." she muttered, scowling in a half-way decent imitation of her husband, "Your own son is with my husband as collateral—and when Inuyasha finds out about—"

Taikokajin cut her words short with a loud snort and then some surprisingly vicious laughter. "You little fool of a woman!" she smiled humorlessly down at Kagome, her eyes glittering with disgust, "My son will _kill_ your mate."

"Are you sure?" Kagome drawled, returning Taikokajin's disgust with a little of her own, "I know you've heard of Inuyasha before, so I thought you wouldn't be so stupid as to pull something like this but…" she shook her head, remembering the pink-eyed demon woman's son, the seemingly calm nature, the blue-gray eyes and the blue-black hair. It didn't seem like the type to do as Taikokajin said—and he was so young…

She looked up to meet Taikokajin's eyes, frowning in confusion, "Inuyasha wouldn't hesitate to kill your son, Lady Taikokajin." The miko prayed silently that the demon woman would have enough sense to realize that risking her son in a battle with the infamous Inuyasha was just stupid, "My husband has no qualms about killing close family members that plot against him." She couldn't help but smirk as she finished the thought, "He's been trying to kill his own brother for as long as I've known him!"

The maids kneeling between Taikokajin and Kagome shifted uneasily. Mitori was gazing at Kagome with something near to respect, or perhaps the beginnings of fear. She didn't particularly fear the young mother necessarily, she was thinking of the young Shishi-sama and his welfare. Momo, meanwhile, had blanked her face, and seemed to be waiting, albeit uncertainly, for a command to be given out.

Taikokajin's face had grown tighter, drawn. She was fighting some sort of inner emotion, keeping it from her face as she stared down, past the fidgeting maids, at the young mother. When she did finally speak there was a certain edge to her voice that Kagome immediately loathed—and feared. "I know this, miko. But _you_ fail to realize that Sesshomaru, like Inutaisho and Inuyasha himself, are all warriors before they are leaders." Her face twisted with pride and hatred alike somehow, "_My_ son and I are _diplomats _before we are warriors or leaders. Shimofuri will stab your mate in the back after he has gained his trust during their journey." The shine in her eyes was one of triumph.

Kagome looked, and felt, as if she might be sick. Part of her was sure Inuyasha would pay enough attention, would trust his gut, but the rest of her feared for him nonetheless…and it was that momentary fear that Taikokajin took advantage of. She made some gesture toward the young mother and abruptly both Mitori and Momo lunged toward Kagome and Koinu.

In a second Kagome was fighting grabbing hands and her own panic. The looks on the maids' faces had become one of blind obedience, a mask, drawn tight and ugly over their features. Although they might've been human moments before, might somewhere have pitied Inuyasha's mate and child for what was about to happen, they were now careless, mindless things, bent on serving. Yet, though Kagome knew this, could see it in their faces, feel it in their clutching hands, she found herself hesitating because they were human—and _women_. The silent edict to spare women and children was something she believed in strongly. Miko energy leapt to her defense but Kagome hesitated as she tried to push them away, to kick at their grabbing hands and cold faces with her feet, hoping to avoid harming them permanently…

One bare foot made contact with Mitori's face, a toe scratched just below her eye. The woman cried out, took hold of her face. Her body shook. Kagome used one hand to support herself, the other to keep Koinu clutched against her, and tried to do a partial crab-walk away from the remaining maid's desperate reach.

Momo locked her grasp onto one of Kagome's knees, keeping her from crawling away. When the miko tried to bat her free with the other the maid caught that foot in her fist. With a sneer that revealed her teeth like a dog, she twisted Kagome's legs, flipping her onto her side.

Koinu started to scream.

With a snarl of her own, Kagome jerked one leg free and smashed her heel into Momo's neck with enough force to send the other woman gasping and reeling away from her. But just as she pushed herself to her own feet, trying to soothe Koinu with only one hand, Mitori reappeared, her eyes red from Kagome's previous attack. Behind her Momo was also recovering, again rising to help…

Kagome sensed movement at the door and looked up. Her heart beat frantically as the youngest maid, who'd always been so kind to her, appeared in the doorway: Nikimi. The young woman paused at the door, her eyes wide with horror. Pushing past her three men entered the room as well, drawing swords. Taikokajin waited like a spider in her web, watching the fly struggling against her hold…the corners of her lips twitched with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation…the bitch was quite enjoying the show, it seemed.

Mitori sprung at Kagome then, and the young mother knew she had no choice. Human or demon, man or woman, she wanted to live longer than this—and to raise her son, to see him grow. Koinu screamed again, sensing his mother's energy surging beneath her skin, but this time Kagome didn't stop to comfort him. Some crying couldn't be stopped; some crying wasn't all bad. Hearing her child's distress was actually better for her—it encouraged her own maternal instincts, strengthened her resolve and her will, which fed the miko power hidden within her.

Thrusting one palm out toward Mitori, Kagome focused the energy like a bullet, in a tight ball. The light in the room seemed to die, absorbed into Kagome as she drew her inner magic. The purple-blue electricity-like energy snapped and crackled, like fire and her palm glowed eerily.

Mitori, stunned, paused only a moment in shock—which was all the time Kagome needed.

The energy ball flashed out and shot at the other woman, hitting her in the chest. She fell as if it'd been a bowling ball, uttering one sharp cry as her body smashed into the floor, unconscious. The shimmering purple-blue energy didn't stop at Mitori. It crashed over her, expanding powerfully. Two of the men that had rushed into the room fell to it as well, their armored bodies slamming loudly onto the wooden floor, scuffing it and crunching a few of the smooth boards.

The ball would've taken out Taikokajin as well, but the demon woman was possessed of Sesshomaru's speed, and, like a cat, she ducked and sprang deftly out of the thing's reach. Her pink eyes glimmered with hate as she focused beyond the purple-blue orb of energy at the young mother who'd produced it. Her hands closed over the hilt of her sword. She could hoped to diffuse or parry Kagome's energy—an ability she'd had cast over the sword long ago when she'd plotted to have Tsuki's rather gifted father put to death.

One armored man, Nikimi, and Momo were all that was left of Kagome's mortal opponents. In one arm Koinu was clutching her shoulders, his face buried in her neck as he cried. His tears were cold and they were beginning to distract her as she assessed the remaining threats. She kept one palm out facing them all, her legs spread in a fighting stance that she'd picked up through years of watching Inuyasha fight. What she wouldn't give for her bow and arrows right about then!

She focused her attention of Taikokajin, her palm turned to face the demon woman who was clearly sneering at her. "I don't want to fight any of you!" she yelled, trying to cover her shaking. Forming such intense bursts of energy was tiring… "Leave us! This is between Taikokajin and I!"

Her servants threw a cautious look toward Taikokajin but didn't back down.

"You speak as if you were my equal, little miko bitch!" Taikokajin abruptly spoke, her face still set in a silent snarl, baring white fangs under her lips. "But I am the Lady of the Middle Lands, and you are a mortal who mated a mongrel! So why should I waste my time fighting with someone as pathetic as you?"

Momo and the armored man drew nearer to her, preparing to spring at the unspoken encouragement her words had fed into them. Nikimi shifted at the door uneasily, but didn't move against the young mother. Her eyes held a mournful expression.

Kagome ignored the servants, still facing Taikokajin directly. "Why should you fight me?" she demanded, the shaking in her body now no longer from the fatigue the miko energy took out of her, but from rage, "Because you're trying to _steal my baby_! What kind of monster _are you_! You're supposed to be a mother yourself!"

For whatever reason, whether it was the miko's tone, or her words, or the fierceness in her expression, this speech made Momo and the armored man pause. They looked again to Taikokajin. Nikimi, still by the door, looked as well. Kagome never saw it, but in the younger maid's eyes there was a clear disgust, open disapproval.

In the silence Koinu's crying was heard with a ridiculous clarity, making Kagome's words all the more powerful.

Taikokajin's face was twisted with hate. "You do not deserve such a child. He deserves to be raised by the inuyoukai clan, but his _true _family. Only then could he become the powerful creature he will need to be to survive." She glared bitterly at the mortal woman, "I am doing your pup a favor!"

Kagome began to shake again; the energy stirred once more, shaping, building. Koinu screamed. "If the clan is full of backstabbing, heartless murderers like you…" she shook her head, tears starting to stream down her face, "I'd rather _die_ than let my son be raised by the likes of _you!"_

The demon woman's sword appeared, shining bright white from its scabbard. A cold cunning had overtaken her face. "That can be arranged…"

* * *

The stench of blood reached both of them at about the same time. Blood and rotting carcasses. 

Inuyasha tucked one red-sleeved arm over his nose, grumbling grouchily about the obscene odor. "It smells worse than even fucking Naraku!" he gagged behind his arm, amber eyes narrowed with intense disgust.

Shimofuri stood, tall and unmoving at his side. Unlike the hanyou he refused to react. No arm was raised to cover his nose, no scowl of displeasure. Inuyasha scented only the terrible stink of death, torture, blood, fear, and rotting, soulless bodies, but Shimofuri could just barely smell something beneath all those other things…this one made his stomach broil inside of him, as if he were a hungry pup, whimpering for mother's milk. It was his sister; it was Tsukiyume, daughter of the monk he still thought of as Kokoro-sama, his childhood teacher, and surrogate father. His sister's scent undeniably carried the deceased monk's odor as well, and Shimofuri shivered inside, remembering the apparition that had appeared to him only a day before…

* * *

_When he'd come to within ten feet of the ghost, shimmering in the moonlight, Shimofuri had spoken the specter's name, using the same familiarity and honor that he had when he'd last known the man before his untimely—and most unfair—death. "Kokoro-sama? Houshi-sama?"_

_And the spirit had turned to face him, the robes of the monk, and the staff he'd carried with him, all eerily silent, another testament to the man's true nature as deceased. But when Shimofuri had looked to the ghost's face—with its unmistakable long shape, the broad jaw and the lengthy nose with the tiny kink in it from an old battle wound—he had no doubt about the ghost's identity, whether real or fake._

_He'd seen the eyes of this man, identical to his sister's: deep brown like moist, rich earth with a small circle around the pupils of purple-black…_

_The spirit of his old teacher nodded to him, a tiny quiver of his lips made them smile, tiny but warm. The apparition recognized him._

_Without having really had any idea he was doing it, and that as a young demon heir it was completely out of place, Shimofuri found himself bowed low before the ghost. "Kokoro-sama…" he whispered again to it, but in his heart he'd called this spirit something closer, between "Father" and "Uncle." In life Shimofuri had loved the monk as a surrogate father, though he did remember his real father too, missed and loved his sire's memory…but the warmth in the monk had been unforgettable._

_There had always been some guilt lodged deep within Shimofuri concerning the monk's death. Kokoro had been his teacher for three years before Taikokajin had birthed Tsuki. With the coming of a sibling Shimofuri had become obsessed with the thought of family as he'd never known it—for unlike when she had been mated with his father, Haiseishoku, Taikokajin had actually been fond of the monk. That emotion prompted the young Shimofuri to try calling Kokoro "Father." Not a week later Kokoro had died mysteriously…_

_For years Shimofuri had been unable to shake the thought: **I killed Kokoro, I killed Tsuki's father when I called him something more than Teacher or Houshi-sama. It was my fault. Mother might've committed the crime, but I inspired it…**_

_And as he faced to the apparition of the man he had once begun to love as a father, Shimofuri had shuddered with his guilt, his shame, but Kokoro, as if gifted in the afterlife with telepathy, knew why the young heir to the Middle Lands shook so._

_"Shimofuri-sama," the spirit spoke with the same, slow, soft affectionate voice he'd used in life—but not with the same informal words. When Shimofuri had been a pup the monk had called him Shimofuri or Shimofuri-chan or any other combination of nicknames. Now the ghost had brought the inuyoukai's current age into sharp focus. "You have grown up."_

_"Thank you, Kokoro-sama."_

_"I have little time. My spirit has come from the grave only for a short time—and I am bound through most of it to Tsukiyume…" Shimofuri had not missed the sadness in the ghost monk's voice when he spoke his daughter's name._

_"She has grown to be like you, Kokoro-sama. Beautiful as Mother, but with your heart…" he'd meant every word, but his voice shook, and shame still coursed through him. He couldn't bring himself to look back at the ghost. He could hardly believe the encounter._

_There was a pause and when Kokoro spoke again his voice was calmer, warmer than Shimofuri thought he had ever heard it: "You blame yourself for my death. You have no reason to. All has happened as it was meant to. If I hadn't died then I would be unable to help you now in saving Tsukiyume, or the others."_

_"The others?" Shimofuri had forced himself to look up at the spirit. He saw the monk's staff and his silent robes move as he turned to face Shimofuri more directly._

_"The others. The other hanyous. Your cousin, his mate and child. Heaven has decreed that the creature you were sent to follow and kill must be destroyed…but I have also come to attempt to save your mother's soul."_

_The young heir's blue-gray eyes snapped up in shock. "Save Mother?"_

_Kokoro's spirit dipped its head, "Yes." The eyes fell on Shimofuri heavily then, and the youth knew the ghost would say no more on the matter, "But that is not why I have come to you. My message to you concerns the nature of the beast that holds Tsukiyume hostage. This beast, the hanyou-eater Garou as he has named himself, is not bound to this earth. His body is maintained by the souls of hanyous. In fighting him, Shimofuri-sama, you will be destroying the souls of countless innocent hanyous. It will take a long time to destroy him as he will be able to regenerate himself using the souls of his hanyou prey…Tsukiyume among them."_

_Shimofuri gritted his teeth, his fangs cut into the corners of his lips. "Kokoro-sama," he murmured, bowing again, "What am I to do?"_

_"The beast will die—without being able to destroy the souls of the hanyous he has captured over the millennia—only if a sword of resurrection is used, a sword of healing. Though you likely know nothing of it such a sword, Shimofuri-sama, is right within your grasps…"_

_Shimofuri felt a shiver pass through him. His mother's voice, from months ago had returned to him, speaking of Sesshomaru: **'His father passed down a sword called Tenseiga, which Sesshomaru deems as virtually useless. It is able to resurrect the dead, and heal his most grievous wounds…'**_

_"Sesshomaru's Tenseiga?" he had murmured at the ghost, hesitantly._

_Kokoro nodded solemnly, and a slow, proud smile took his face as he had dipped his head to his former pupil. "You truly have grown into a magnificent creature, Shimofuri-sama…"_

_"Please Kokoro-sama," Shimofuri's face had grown hot, as if on fire at the deceased monk's praise and his continued use of formal, respective language through their conversation, "Call me what you did when you lived. I may have aged, Teacher, but in your presence I will always be the puppy that you reprimanded for chewing on your sandals."_

_Though it should've been impossible the spirit laughed, and Shimofuri glanced up at it, and his stomach had lurched when he saw that the ghost was fading fast, like stars disappear with the coming of dawn's light. "Did I scold you so harshly, Shimofuri-chan? You didn't deserve it if I did."_

_The young heir smiled even as the ghost completely faded away, leaving its presence alone behind. It warmed his soul, though he still cringed as he realized just what he needed to do all in one night to make sure he could save the hanyou souls…but as he'd set off into the darkness, shifting his shape into the blue-black colored dog once again, he'd been filled with mirth at the reminder of his puppy days…_

**_Yes, my old teacher is being too kind to say I did not deserve the reprimand. He has obviously forgotten that I was fond of urinating on his robes…_**

* * *

"We have come to the beast's den." Shimofuri murmured, nodding his head a little, still oblivious to the stink of corruption and filth in the air. "But we must wait." 

Inuyasha's amber stare flicked to him, wide eyed with something akin to horror. "What the hell for? You think I'm going to stand here and let that damn stench get to me?" his voice was a muffled growl behind his red sleeves.

Shimofuri's eyes shone with amusement. "Your sense of smell is not as strong as mine. If I can endure, you should be able to as well, cousin."

Inuyasha rocked back and forth on his heels, eyes crinkled in disgust. "Ugh!" he gagged again behind his sleeve, trying to come up with a decent string of curses to convince Shimofuri to give in. "Why the hell should we wait? You wanna rescue that wench of yours or not!" he knew that Shimofuri's comment was accurate—a full blooded demon's senses were stronger than a hanyou's, but he wasn't about to admit that he had a low tolerance for such things, and that he'd grown accustomed to smelling things that made his stomach clench up with desire rather than revulsion…things like _Kagome_…

"She is not my wench, Inuyasha," he corrected in a monotone, "She is Tsukiyume, my half-sister."

"Yeah, okay, fine, whatever." He grumbled, "But I'm not one to wait on anything! Besides—hasn't this thing had enough time to eat your sister already? Why the hell should we give it anymore time?"

"My sister is alive. Garou is not present currently. Only when he returns can we accomplish what we set out to."

"Damn it!" the hanyou knew that he'd complained just a little too violently when he saw Shimofuri's eyes turn to pin him, amusement openly glittering there. "What the hell you staring at, pup?" he grumped, his ears folding backward.

The smile beneath his cousin's lips was barely suppressed, "You are very sensitive for a half-demon…"

"Shut up, Shimo-kid, I'm warning you!"

"Perhaps you are worried this scent will stay with you and sour you for when you return to your human mate." He ignored the dangerous, but slightly embarrassed growl that issued from Inuyasha, "I would be concerned if I were you as well, Inuyasha." He smirked a little, breaking the solemn mask, "This smell is bad enough that even a mortal woman's nose would be able to detect it…"

"You watch yourself, pup, I may kill you yet." He snarled, still gagging behind his sleeve. "And let's get this straight—I'm not controlled by Kagome. I'm no prissy bastard like Sesshomaru. Got it?"

The gray-blue eyes of his cousin narrowed with amusement at the hanyou's insistence but he didn't answer, focusing instead on what lied ahead.

The inside of Shimofuri's nasal passages burned from the overpowering stench drifting through the forest, making him mostly immune to it by now. His clawed hands, the slender fingers, brushed against the hilt of his sword, Ribikou. He glanced about the forest, used all his senses, seeking another demon's presence—either Sesshomaru or Garou's. He felt nothing to his disappointment.

"We must wait for your brother to aid us." He announced, knowing that he'd better let Inuyasha scream his outrage at such news while they were for the most part alone.

For the first time since the stench had come Inuyasha dropped his shielding arm, the red swathe of sleeve exposing a fierce, angry grimace of white teeth and fangs. His white ears folded backward. "What the fuck did you just say?"

* * *

Endnote: YAYS! This story has gotten big! By far my biggest! (Gapes stupidly) But it's all thanks to you guys! YAYS! Credit where credit is due: THANK YOU! Hehe, in celebration I even have a preview this time around! There were so many that I'm going to try to keep this short (Don't I say that every time? (ponders))Now on to the reviewers: 

THANK YOU: _**SomeoneInThePastOfEarth**_ (OOh! Chocolate!(bows) Thank you!) _**TheDarkAngel101 **_(LOL! She's quivering by now b/c there are so many of you! I know I would be!) _**InuAndMiroku'sGirl Sango, Prophet WolfStar**_ (Yes, you could, most definitely. But I doubt I could be so cruel as to let that happen to Koinu...he's too cute...I have an extended character planned out for him so if there are any more sequels or one-shots in the future I think everyone will adore him (smirks proudly) he may look like Inuyasha but...(snickers)) _**SlummyRedDragon**_ (Thank you! (grins)) _**orangepencils**_ (hehe, everyone hates poor Momo-Peach-Face too, hehe. I guess I have a knack for making hateable characters, even if they're only background characters...I must remember this...I don't think that Koinu is old enough just yet to do any direct killing himself...but he will not be totally without some little bit of defense...) _**Tiamath**_ (As usual I just LOVE you! You were honest about Kokoro's visit leaving you in the dark, I apologize for that, hope I cleared it up for you and everyone else...Letting the hanyous take the final blow for revenge against Garou is simply excellent! My instinct with Taikokajin was that if I couldn't find a way to redeem her she would be dealt the final blow by Inuyasha. Not b/c Kagome couldn't do it with her own strength, but b/c Inuyasha is sybolizing her past mates who she robbed of their own pups...But I do feel that I don't really want her to be killed at the same time. As a character I've worked out her backstory pretty thoroughly...her past is one of...unfortunate miscommunication... between father and daughter. I'm going to have to sit down and write it out sometime...next chapter she throws everyone a surprise: the exact reason why she _really_ wants Koinu...) _**neoelite**_ (Thank you!) _**FanstasyFreak, Shikou**_ (Thank you! I shall continue, never fear, I already have a fair amount of next chapter done as well...I'm curious, who did you draw? Inuyasha, Kagome and Koinu or the original characters? I'm actually anxious to see a reader's interpretation of Shimo-pup and Taikokajin, but I am indebted to you for even considering fanart, let alone doing it! (bows)) _**Yami Chikara**_ (it's absolutely no problem for me to answer stuff here! It helps me get a feel for where the story needs to be and how the readers are feeling about it...would you be seriously opposed to Taikokajin surviving this fiction? Next chapter she throws out a surprise for all of you, if you want a hint at it go back and search in the chapter called "Soul Stone" I think, at least it's nearby that chapter anyway,look for Shimofuri and Taikokajin walking through the palace gardens and talking to each other...Shimofuri is opposed to her taking Koinu from Inu and Kagome...the hint is there, but you'll never see it coming...) Ack! The computer pulled a "This program has performed an illegal action" while I was answering these and so it ate a lot of my comments before I saved them so I'm going to apologize in mass to everyone's comments that it ate: _**NefCanuck, The Moonless Night, yoyo person, Simonkal of Inyu**_ I am SO SORRY, my computer will be punished, I assure you...and Simonkal of Inyu in answer to your question, yes, Kagome's a lot stronger than Koinu at this point and although Kagome is mated to IY and he loves her, I had to keep in mind over and over again what my Sociology teacher preached to us one day: if she had to chose between her husband and her children, like say if they were drowning, she'd try to save her children first. That's a mother's answer anyway, a father's I'm not as sure about...good question... _**kirarakitty **_(Never be sorry for pointing out something that bothers you! You weren't flaming so if I were to take offense you'd have the God-given right to slap me! It's my job as a writer to accept critiscism. Your comment whipped me into shape, and made me think, so I owe you a second Thank you! (bows) And as usual you are keeping me sharp! If you'd like I'll add a little scene for where Sango, Miroku Shippo and their children are and what's going on...otherwise it's hard to add them in, but don't worry, they'll reappear by the time the story ends. Also I had thought to cover what they're doing in a story that's a collection of one-shots and backstories to the original characters here and such...and you got me...I did Kagome's dream out of memory, I know I should've watched it and taken notes, but I was lazy...ouch...I been fried...(sniggles)) _**QueenTatooine**_ (Hey! Thank you! You reviewed "Hanyou" and SWFM too! Thank you! I'm glad that you can browse through all my work and tell me what you think...I usually have someone review "Hanyou" and then never hear from them again...I personally adore SWFM (somebody's waiting for me). It always seems more beautiful to me than my other stories, though I have no idea why...it's been good hearing from you!) _**InuObsessed o.o**_ (LOL! I can write one-shots about them later perhaps if you want...) And now to the preview! The only hint I'm giving for the bigger plot is that the chapter is called "Taikokajin's Curse."

_Shimofuri avoided meeting his cousin's eyes. "I said that Sesshomaru is coming to help us with his Tenseiga." _

_"And how the hell do you know something like that, Shimo-pup?" Inuyasha's ears swiveled, not together, but one forward and one backward, as if listening carefully for his most hated brother already. "And—**damn it!—**why would we need that old bastard's help, anyway? He'll just get all dreamy-eyed about his little girl—er—mate. We don't need that kind of crap!"_

Yes, Inu is still teasing Sesshy...but of course what else can you expect? Until next time...


	25. Taikokajin's Curse

**A/N:** Well, as all of you know, I'm late...I apologize for that. See I actually only just finished my novel last weekend. Just today I sat down and feverishly wrote this up b/c let's face it: YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! Not once did anyone threaten my life. You've been so good to me, so understanding, so I'm here to make sure you know that I haven't abandoned you. (grins)

**Notes on the chapter:** I'm still afraid that you'll think it stinks, but I'm putting it up anyway. (nods sternly) I love you all too much to live with the guilt of not updating when all of you have stuck with me SO long, and never once threatened my life! I love you guys! Okay, as to the content: Two things might catch you by surprise. The first concerns our dear Lady Pinky. What she tells Kagome in this chapter isn't BS I made up on the spot while writing it. In chapter...17: Soul Stone I actually hint a bit, though you'd never have guessed it, in Shimofuri's conversation with his mother in that chapter. Here's my copy/paste thing: _Taikokajin's clear face was cold and pale—frigid. He had only rarely seen her so cold. "The clan will no longer send me a mate, **chakunan**. And even if they did…" her face wrinkled, "It would do no good." _Anyway...all planned (grins). And also i think in chapter 17 there's Tsuki's struggle with Garou's curse. Like Kagome she has a curse, but unlike Kagome she doesn't have any experience with it, no training with her powers inherited from her father. Anyway...enjoy!

again, everyone who's waited for me...(blows kisses and throws candy and pizza and whatever else all of you want!) LOVE YOU ALL and many THANK YOUS!

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**Taikokajin's Curse**

Kagome's breath hissed sharply in her throat, her body tensed and readied for battle. Instinctively she knew that Taikokajin's sword was able to absorb and combat spiritual energy like the type she'd thrown at Mitori the maid moments ago. She cursed inwardly…_if only I had an arrow…_

Taikokajin's pink eyes flicked to Momo and the single armed guard. "Get her."

Momo lunged first, letting out a primal sound that seemed inhuman. Kagome reacted immediately. A small but fast purple glowing streak shot out at the crazy maid, meeting her in the stomach. With a cry Momo fell, clutching her belly, fighting to stay conscious as the miko energy tore through her.

The man in the armor leveled his sword at her and made a strange grunting sound in his throat. She prepared herself for another charge only to realize that he was going to toss the sword at her. For a moment she was like a deer in the headlights of a car, wide eyed and stupid, unable to leap aside with the instinctual deftness that Inuyasha and the other dog demons seemed to possess. The long, sharp length of metal streaked toward her…

And then Kagome felt herself pushed roughly to the side, and, though it made no sense at all, she had one quick thought: _Inuyasha_…for a moment her heart leapt with familiarity. The person who'd thrown her aside, rough as it was, had long, silver-white free-flowing hair like her husband but—her stomach lurched and her thoughts derailed as the sword came at the armored, silver-haired creature, microseconds from punching a hold into its gut…

But a slender, clawed hand snatched the sword just before it made contact. Red fluid oozed from beneath the fierce clutch the hand had on it. Kagome noticed, absently, that, like Sesshomaru's, this hand had turquoise streaks over the wrist and the back of the palm.

Koinu's cries reached her then and Kagome sprang away from the action on instinct and pulled her pup closer to her, trying to comfort him. She blew on his ears, whispered praise.

The man who'd thrown the sword fell to his knees, bowing over and over again. He muttered apology after apology in desperation. "Lady Taikokajin, I am sorry for my error, I am a fool, please spare me my miniscule life. I am nothing but a wretched human. I have a family, my lady…"

The silver-haired figure was Taikokajin, of course. Her face was contorted and twisted with a hateful sneer. "You bastard!" she growled, her voice low, frightening. "You threw your sword at her! What the hell were you thinking! You could've skewered the pup!"

Kagome's body went instantly tense._ Taikokajin saved me to protect Koinu_…she was grateful that she'd been saved—but she understood full well that it hadn't been done for her. _I have to get away from here…_

Taikokajin threw the man's sword around, catching it with her bloodied palm by the hilt. "You will pay for your stupidity with your life!" she hissed.

"No! Please my lady!" the man looked up to beg more just in time to stretch his neck out enough for Taikokajin's sword to sever his head from his shoulders.

Kagome squeaked with horror and shielded both Koinu and her own eyes, though the pup wasn't even looking in the direction of the violence. A fit of shuddering took her, shock. She felt the spell that was on her soul pull strangely and knew that whatever demon had control of it was trying to drag her strength away again. Pain ripped through her, but dimly she saw Taikokajin toss the dead man's sword away, and she smelled the iron stink of blood, but luckily missed the headless body falling to spill its blood on the beautiful wooden floors.

_Get away!_ Instinct reeled again, forcing Kagome to focus through her pain, terror and confusion. She looked away from Taikokajin and saw Nikimi, wide eyed and terrified, still at the door. Without thought Kagome leapt to her feet, pressing Koinu tightly against her, and dashed toward the maid.

"Nikimi!"

The young maid's eyes turned toward her, glazed by wild fear…

A dark shape appeared as if out of thin air in front of her, Kagome tried to stop, nearly falling backward, but she couldn't stop herself from bumping into the thing…a clawed hand slapped itself over the arm that held Koinu against her, tightened until Kagome felt new pain digging into her as the claws cut into her flesh…

Koinu screamed with fear at the scent of his mother's blood and Kagome was tossed abruptly from her helpless daze.

The miko energy came immediately, building in the other, free fist. Kagome met Taikokajin's pink-eyed stare for a split second before the energy flared, shaped and ready, and the young mother thrust it straight at the inuyoukai woman. The purple-blue flickering rolled over Taikokajin's body, battled with her normal demonic energy, and, with a screech that was almost more of a dog's painful yipping, she jerked away from Kagome.

Shivering, and stumbling weakly, Kagome blinked, steadying herself against the pull of the spell on her soul and the draining usage of her miko energy in such huge bursts. Her breathing was rough and ragged, Koinu felt like a lump of lead in her shaking arms. Desperately she tried to move away from where Taikokajin was struggling with her purifying magic, only to trip over one of the other bodies that had already fallen prey to her earlier bursts.

Koinu cried frantically, clutching his little arms around her neck. The jarring of several falls was getting to him, making the pup's blue eyes wide with terror and his face red from crying, wet with his tears. Fear battled within Kagome. She didn't want to traumatize her baby like this…her eyes flew to Nikimi again…

The ringing sound of a sword being drawn caught her attention. Taikokajin had unsheathed her sword again, the miko-energy absorbing blade. It glowed brilliantly, a beautiful thing to fit the beautiful—but beastly—demon woman who wielded it. Taikokajin's eyes glittered with pain and rage. The formerly smooth skin of her neck was now charred, wrinkled a little with burns from direct exposure to Kagome's power.

"The pup, miko bitch," she growled, her voice oddly distorted, far from its usual smooth, deep and melodic beauty. "Or I'll kill you."

Faintly, Kagome tried to push herself away from the bright, shining sword in Taikokajin's clawed and still bleeding hands. Her thoughts were drowned and mixed with Koinu's screaming, the sensation of his cold and wet baby tears in the neck of the kimono robe she was wearing. The sword followed her movements, and Taikokajin's face was steadily growing more and more impatient.

Pain rippled through the lingering ties she had to the strange demon that had somehow managed to get a grip on her soul with dark magic, but Kagome ignored it, forcing her mind around it. She had to be conscious and fully aware to escape Taikokajin…the miko energy built within her, growing. Her vision blurred, the room spun, but she refused to let go…

"I grow tired of this!" Taikokajin hissed, her face an ugly, hateful mask. All signs of serenity and peace were gone when Kagome looked up at her. Somehow the young mother found a hidden calm inside her when she looked at the demon woman's madness—a calm sprung from pity. "Give me that child!"

"Why? Why do you want Koinu? What do you really care about how Inuyasha and I raise him? Koinu's only a quarter demon…" Kagome squeaked, blinking. Fear melted in her mind completely when Taikokajin's sword tip, pointed down at her, wavered. The pink eyes widened and the negative emotions drained from her face, returning it to a colder, carefully controlled outer mask.

Abruptly the glowing, white light of the sword was extinguished as Taikokajin sheathed the blade, glaring down at Kagome. "Get up, miko bitch." She barked.

Kagome stared, stunned, as the demon woman took a few steps back from her deliberately and looked to Nikimi. "You!" she growled when the poor, confused maid looked to the inuyoukai and dropped to her knees immediately.

"Yes Lady—"

"Get out."

"Yes, my lady." Nikimi turned swiftly on her heel and left the room, sliding the door closed behind her. Kagome, on her feet as the maid rushed away, felt a pang of fear rush through her. Carefully she continued building her magic up inside her, erecting a shield that would protect against Taikokajin's touch as well as her sword. Koinu didn't like the feeling much: his crying grew louder, more frightened, but Kagome could do nothing about it.

Taikokajin turned her pink-colored eyes on the young miko, narrowed to horizontal slits of unnatural color. Her skin was pale, as if she were ill. Moments ago it had been flushed with heat, the intensity of impending battle. If Kagome had been demon, and if Koinu hadn't been crying as hard and as loud as he was, she might've been able to hear the demon woman's heartbeat fluttering away like a mouse's.

"Can you undo spells, miko?" came the albino demon's growl.

Kagome blinked. That was the last thing she'd expected out of Taikokajin's mouth. "I haven't been properly trained but…"

"You_ must_ be able." The eyes were alertly trained on her, the stare narrow and suspicious, evaluating her. "That must be the only way you were able to escape the hanyou-eater's curse on your soul…"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat. _The thing that Inuyasha went after for her is the same thing that's been trying to take my soul? But…how?_ She steadied herself, preparing for anything Taikokajin had to throw at her. "Are you in league with that monster?"

Taikokajin threw her head back and laughed, long and hard, though the sound was a rough one, without any true mirth in it. When she faced the fidgeting miko again Kagome noted a nasty gleam in her eyes that she didn't like at all. "You think," Taikokajin began with a snarl mixing with the dark, humorless laughter of moments before, "That I would work with some_thing_ that took my daughter away?"

It was Kagome's turn now to narrow her eyes suspiciously, "I wouldn't put it past you—seeing as how you're trying to kill your own son by threatening to kill me." she stared defiantly at the inuyoukai woman, challenging her. "And did you think Inuyasha would sit idly by while you steal our son away?"

Taikokajin's expression was bland. "Your mate is likely already dead."

"If you really think that—then why haven't you killed me yet and just taken Koinu?"

The slender, blood splattered fingers curled around the hilt of her sword. "Don't try me miko bitch…"

"Then get to the point! How did you know I was under a spell? Why aren't you killing me?" the adrenaline lingering within her made Kagome shake, her breath coming in fast spurts. Her outburst, she realized distantly, likely wasn't wise—though she doubted that Taikokajin felt any mercy toward her. Mercy from the inu-youkai woman was about as ridiculous as the thought of Sango and Miroku sending Kagura Christmas cards every year.

Taikokajin's face was expressionless, though Kagome could still clearly see the hostility just beneath the mask...and was there a little bit of something else too? Desperation? Frustration? She couldn't tell for sure. "That is all unimportant. Just tell me: can you break curses set on demons?"

"I don't know…" Kagome answered, still wary and untrusting. She adjusted Koinu while Taikokajin's gaze lingered on her, seeming to come to a conclusion. The pup slowly began to quiet in her arms, though he continued to cling to her as if for dear life. She worried about him quietly and found herself filled with fear that he might be scarred or hurt in some way by the jostling of the battle. It nagged her internally, as if it were a physical wound. Even when Taikokajin spoke Kagome could never quite rid herself of the fear for Koinu, the desperate desire to escape—not for her own sake, but for her child's.

"You asked why I wanted your pup," Taikokajin began, through gritted teeth, and Kagome flinched at the roughness of her voice, at the harshness and terrible emotion in it, "It is simply because I can have no others of my own."

Startled, Kagome shook her head, confused. She fought to keep her voice even and neutral, hoping not to arouse Taikokajin's anger by speaking. "What do you—"

"I was cursed by one gifted with spiritual magic such as you." the demon woman's voice was low, dangerous, but her gaze had drifted away to stare with hatred at the bodies on the floor around them, as if the fallen maids and armed men were to blame. "A monk." She spat the word, bitterly.

Still Kagome was confused, "Why—"

The pink eyes whipped back to face her, furiously. "Because he knew I killed Kokoro!"

"Kokoro…?"

"My daughter's father. He was a monk too. Damn them both!" she paused a moment, shaking with emotion. Despite her Sesshomaru-like appearances Taikokajin was a raging beast of feeling, it seemed, though a great deal of it Kagome was unable to read. Was it pain or fury? Either way Kagome could think of nothing but getting away from the monster before her, of getting Koinu to safety. She looked to the doorway once, but knew sprinting to it would be futile.

Eventually Taikokajin looked back at Kagome, her gaze heavy and angry. "If you can break such a spell…" she breathed once, and her expression lost the intensity, the anger or pain or whatever emotion had been clouding the pink eyes died, _"Lady Inuyasha_, I will spare your life and leave your child with you."

_Oh, goody._ Kagome restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Part of her wanted nothing more than to destroy Taikokajin, to show the demon woman the peril in betraying the agreement she'd had with Inuyasha, for the insult and injury she'd heaped on Kagome, Inuyasha—and the danger she'd put Koinu in. Yet the rest of her was aware of Koinu's warm grip on her, his shuddering little body in her arms, and the pain that lingered inside her. If there were a little time, she thought, perhaps just long enough that she could break free of the spell she was under, Kagome could survive and get away, Koinu as well…_but Inuyasha_…

She met Taikokajin's cold, expectant gaze, and asked, "You'd let me go free? With Inuyasha and Koinu? You would have no further demands of any of us?"

Taikokajin made a noise that sounded like a scoff, "If your mate still lives, and if both of my children do as well, yes…"

Instinct she hadn't known she possessed rose within her, and Kagome narrowed her usually warm and loving brown eyes in distrust. _She's lying…something is fishy. If I agree to this and take away the curse, if it exists, she'll probably just kill me, take Koinu anyway, and then try to kill Inuyasha too_…But what was she supposed to say now?

_Please Inuyasha…hurry!_

There was nothing for it but to stall.

She nodded warily to Taikokajin, "I'll try and remove it for you…" she stopped herself from calling the demon before her a nice, respectful name like "Lady Taikokajin" and instead finished her thoughts without addressing the woman at all. "But I'll need a lot of time to recover my lost energy." She prayed she sounded genuine. In reality Kagome suspected she and Taikokajin could've gone at it, one type of energy to another, for hours—but with Koinu in her arms that was a stupid idea…

She couldn't be sure but she thought she saw Taikokajin's face twist briefly with disgust or suspicion, but it was gone almost as fast as she'd thought she'd seen it. "I am pleased, Lady Inuyasha…" she murmured, nodding her head slightly. When Kagome refused to do the same as was required in proper etiquette, the demon woman's smile turned swiftly into a frown, though she said nothing.

"I will have Nikimi escort you to a different room." Taikokajin threw her last words over her shoulder as she slid open the door and stepped out, leaving Kagome alone.

Blood and bodies all around her, Kagome frowned and clutched the only other lively thing in the room even closer to her. Koinu was silent, though he moved against her every so often, gently, telling her that he was still awake. Her son was being careful, following deeply ingrained instincts. His ears barely moved too, though a sharp sound still caught his attention easily. Kagome tried to get him to rumble and coo for her again in happiness, but the pup was dead set on staying as stiff as a board. She worried about him silently; still trying to rub his ears, smooth his hair, stroke his arms and his back…but her pup remained stiff.

_I need to get out of here; Koinu needs to be home again, away from all this danger…_

She waited for Nikimi in a body-less corner, giving all her attention to the pup, trying to make sure he was all right, and at the same time, counseling herself that she was going to be okay too.

* * *

Shimofuri avoided meeting his cousin's eyes. "I said that Sesshomaru is coming to help us with his Tenseiga." 

"And how the hell do you know something like that, Shimo-pup?" Inuyasha's ears swiveled, not together, but one forward and one backward, as if listening carefully for his most hated brother already. "And—_damn it!—_why would we need that old bastard's help, anyway? He'll just get all dreamy-eyed about his little girl—er—mate. We don't need that kind of crap!"

"Actually, cousin, we do."

Inuyasha's eyes were the size of dinner plates, and filled with outrage. "Like hell we do, pup! Maybe _you _do, but I'm gonna kick this loser's ass without anyone else's help!"

Alarm raced through Shimofuri when he noted that the hanyou's body language had changed, becoming distinctly battle-ready. His clawed fingers lingered a little too eagerly over Tetsusaiga's hilt. For a moment the young inuyoukai lord had a clear, soothing thought: _Inuyasha is battle-hardened and that **must** include the proper caution._

The confidence that the thought filled him with deflated the moment Inuyasha growled, low and powerfully, and hurried forward, first at a trot and then with great leaps and bounds. The long sleeves of his haori trailed in the breeze his swift movements generated. For a split-second Shimofuri remembered the bristling hostility that Inuyasha had exuded with Sesshomaru when they were supposed to be guests in the demon lord's palace, and he realized his error. It seemed impossible that the stubborn, brazen, incautious hanyou could've survived at all by rushing thoughtlessly into battle—but obviously he had. Perhaps it had something, he mused idly for a moment, dredging up his memories, to do with his human mate…

Shimofuri raced forward, following the impatient Inuyasha into battle.

* * *

There was a distant sound, like the thudding a hammer might make as it struck the earth, or the grumble of rocks as they slid down a steep slope after a heavy spring rain loosened their hold. She gave it little thought; her body was still too weak, betraying her will. Somewhere, past the stink of blood, death, and pain—the rank mixture had long since ceased to register inside her nose, having scoured it clean of scent receptors ages ago—Tsukiyume could hear the birds chirping, calling prettily, innocently to their mates in the trees across the clearing. 

She gritted her teeth until her jaw ached. Their cheeping mocked her misery.

_Thump. Thump._ The steady, rhythmic sound caught her attention again, and she focused on it, slowly realizing that her heart had picked up speed, her limbs felt a little less numb. It seemed that the sound brought hope with it. Such a thought was almost laughable, since it was probably the sound of her tormentor returning, gleefully smeared with the latest hanyou's blood.

It was still difficult for her to remember what had happened to her, troubling to wonder why she remained alive when all the other hanyou the monster brought to the clearing were slaughtered. Their souls were torn from them, sometimes their blood spilled only for the sick joy it must've brought the monster, other times he sucked them dry. If she'd had anything to eat at all she would've thrown up for sure, but she could barely remember whatever—_when_ever—she'd last eaten. If she were completely human, Tsukiyume was certain she'd have died long ago.

But the questions persisted. Why was she still alive? Who was her captor—why was it that she couldn't place his disgusting, reeking scent? Who was coming to rescue her? Was it Shimofuri or her mother? The guidance from her father's spirit used her, protecting her—but it offered her none of the answers she wanted. The only thing she did know, was that she was alive because the monster must have another purpose for her, another use that benefited him, otherwise she would've died long ago at his claws.

She was a pawn in whatever game was being played, and it wasn't the first time she hadn't been given a choice about what happened to her. The calming memory of her father's spirit visiting her was tainted with the realization that Shimofuri's quiet whisperings throughout her childhood were _real._

_Mother! How could you?_

Something burst into the clearing. Tsukiyume could hear its rough breathing, the snorting sounds that came with disgust. Was it her tormentor? She strained her senses, her memories, and found that her heart beat loud in her chest. _It's a **hanyou!**_ Weakly, she tried to speak—no sound came. How could she warn him if she could not speak?

"Yo—wench…" his voice changed, quieting abruptly. "Are you…Pinky's daughter?" she sensed the mixture of pity and outrage in his strained voice, but wasn't sure where it came from. Did it really matter, she thought, when they were both doomed to suffer as soon as the monster came back? She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to roll her head to one side, to focus her eyes on the other hanyou's form. A red figure came into sight, fair hair the same color as her mother's, but atop his head were two triangular dog ears.

A thought hit her then: _he knows who I am…?_ With a jolt she realized that his presence wasn't an accident. Her mind reeled, foggy with confusion and slow with her prolonged hunger, her dry, swollen tongue was like a rock, useless and immobile. She wanted to question him, wanted to warn him, and couldn't. But who was he? His scent was too weak for her to analyze, too faint for her to make out his relations, his age…

He strode forward, his tread heavy and confident. It was odd, she realized, he walked not like her brother or her mother, or even like her uncle, but more like a samurai, like a warrior. She was inordinately swept away by bafflement, unable to take her eyes away from him as he knelt at her side, reached for her.

"Are you Tsukiyume?" he asked, his ears swiveled, listening and alert for danger. "Is your mother that lady pink bitch?" though his voice was gruff and unsympathetic, the hanyou's face creased with something that might've been concern. She noted that his eyes were golden, as her grandfather's were rumored to have been, but that didn't mean he was closely related at all, did it?

The hanyou grabbed her up into his arms, his face contorting into a brief scowl that wasn't, she silently understood, because of her weight added to his own. She settled her face against his chest, feeling the strength hidden beneath the red folds of his robe, a male musk rose from his hair, like perfume. It was the first thing she'd smelled that wasn't completely repulsive in weeks. She moaned, trying to will words out of her mouth, her fingers tightened on his clothes. The scent he carried registered within her somewhere as familiar. _Cousin, a high-born cousin…_

He cursed somewhere above her, his tone grumbling. "Where's that Shimo-pup when I need him?" jarring steps jolted through Tsukiyume's body, mimicking the effect his words had on her heart. _Shimofuri…?_

A sound made the hanyou move sharply, jerking Tsukiyume in his arms, and she felt him tense where he held her, but only for a moment before he relaxed, snorting with a mixture of humor and disgust. "Well, Shimo-kun, you came after all!"

Struggling against her haze of weakness and confusion, Tsuki craned her neck, looking for the familiar, comforting image of her older half brother. Just as she'd prayed, just as she'd dreamed through her weeks of tortuous captivity, Shimofuri had come. Her brother came to a stop up the hill; his face a careful mask that she knew their mother had tried to school into him at the earliest age possible—despite the fact that she herself rarely used it. His gray robes were neat and unwrinkled as always, though she thought that his blue-black hair was a little wilder than usual, a sure sign of trouble or a battle. A wave of dizziness poured over her, sheer relief.

It might be the red-robed hanyou cousin that reached her first, that held her safe and snug in his strong warrior's arms, but to Tsuki it was her brother's presence that assured her suddenly that she was going to live. She sagged limply in her cousin's arms, letting fatigue wash through her, letting it take her away from the stench and the painful memories…

_Just a little while…just a little sleep…_

* * *

"Is she harmed?" Shimofuri strode forward, trying to appear unconcerned but feeling certain that Inuyasha would hear the thick, echoing _thud-thud, thud-thud_ of his heart pounding away on the inside of his chest. 

Inuyasha shifted the girl, amber eyes unfathomable—disturbed, Shimofuri suspected. "She'll live." His ears fell backward, as if he were lying, "I don't smell much blood on her…"

"Garou has allowed her to live unharmed." Though he didn't show it on his face, Shimofuri was torn; his mind was a battle zone, a place of turmoil. Part of him was swamped with simple relief that she lived. His initial instinct was to run with her in his arms, without stopping at all, to reach the Middle Lands, to take her home. Yet the rest of him understood with a weary apprehension that the beast that had taken his sister to begin with hadn't just forgotten her—there was _something_ wrong…

Amber eyes met with his gray-blue, suddenly sharp and suspicious. The hanyou's lips pursed, flushing white. "Why?" he smirked darkly, "Is that what you're thinking, pup?"

Shimofuri gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head. "Yes. Garou's actions don't make any sense." He couldn't stop his lip from curling up slightly, exposing the single gleam of one white fang. "He _devours_ hanyous to survive. It is his _only_ means of survival, and hanyous are not as common as they once were. His hunting has taken its toll."

The words took their toll on Inuyasha. His white ears fell backward, his face twisted in a snarl. A growl rose from his throat and took its time forming coherent words. "So why the hell would he leave a nice piece of meat lying around uneaten?" he sneered.

"Because I have control of her soul!" Inuyasha and Shimofuri whirled to face the loud, rasping voice of Tsukitume's kidnapper, caught off guard. Garou was above them, on the sandy dune of grass that rose just above the lakeshore, which he'd soiled with the spilled blood and wild fear of so many unfortunate hanyous. At their brief expressions of surprise and bafflement, he laughed, harshly and without mirth. "It's about time that the pink bitch sent you for her miserable whelp." He grinned, teeth sickeningly yellow, "I've been waiting—and so has the whelp!"

"Dammit! I couldn't smell him over the stink!" the hanyou snarled, nose wrinkling, amber eyes narrowing. He shifted awkwardly, claws eager to draw Tetsusaiga, but at the same time unwilling to abandon the limp, frail form of the girl in his arms. He'd never known really what to expect out of Shimofuri's younger half-demon sister, but when he'd seen her, gotten a good look at her, he found himself reminded of a younger, frightened version of himself. She had hair like Kagome's, long and silky black, but what he'd seen of her eyes reminded him more of Sango's intense brown. But the two white triangles, little dog ears that drooped innocently atop her head, were exactly what he'd seen atop his own head after his mother died and he'd been chased off as nothing more than a helpless, frightened pup.

The memory made his grip around the girl tighten. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Shimofuri's movement, stiff with the young heir's growing instinct to protect his family.

"For what you have done to my sister, and to the other innocents whose blood I scent in this place—I will _kill_ you, Garou."

"Will you?" Garou mocked, amused as he stared down his nose at the two rescuers that'd chased him down for the pink bitch's whelp. His gaze strayed from Tsuki to the hanyou that was holding her, and his expression took on a sharper, leaner look: an expression of hunger and desire. "I don't believe that _Tsukiyume_ would like that…"

"Why you no good bastard!" Inuyasha shouted, ears folding back, "Why I outta…" his amber eyes flared wide as the girl in his arms sprang awake, her body suddenly rigid and _powerful_. Her face was flushed white, her lips trembled, her eyes were wide but unseeing. Tiny whimpering sounds rose from her throat.

Shimofuri bristled, looking between his sister in Inuyasha's arms and Garou's triumphant sneering. A red light started to grow behind his gaze, started to gain power, when he spoke his fangs were whiter and longer than they'd been moments before. _"What have you done to my sister?"_

"I told you," Garou cackled, raising one fisted hand into the air, his cloak whipped around him to an invisible wind created by his own internal energies, "Her soul is _mine now_." He clenched his fist tight and grinned. A swirling black light rose and wrapped about his form, seeming to darken the whole of the sky.

_"I'll kill you."_ Shimofuri vowed, starting to move forward when a cry of shock and surprise from Inuyasha stopped him short.

Tsukiyume had fought her way out of Inuyasha's arms, and now held the hanyou by the throat. Her face was warped with pain, pale as the clouds in the sky above. Shimofuri felt as if he might vomit as he realized that Garou was right—bits of black tainted his half sister's aura.

"Tsukiyume!" he shouted, a commanding tone, trying to reach who she _really_ was, buried underneath. "Stop this at once!"

Her teeth flared, as white as her face, but only sounds of pain, high and weak, reached Shimofuri's ears in response. From the hill, Garou's laughter rose, cackling and raspy.

"She will kill you both before you can even _touch_ me—because neither of you will so much as strike her! You are doomed by your own weak hearts!" he spat, grinning hungrily as he narrowed his gaze at Shimofuri, preparing to rub salt into the young demon's emotional wounds, "And once she's killed you both—I'll _devour_ her!"

* * *

Endnote: I think I'm in love with Phillip J. Fry from Futurama! (sighs longingly) What's with this rumor about not being able to thank our fans! Is that true! (grumbles) Sorry about this cliffie, but it wrote itself...(grins faintly) at least I updated...? (looks around hopefully) _I miss you _will be next...never fear. I think that one I had just planned to let it take off very soon.

For those of you, and it's been a _lot_ (for which I'm absolutely HONORED!(screams out her excitement YAYS!)), who've shown interest in my novel, yes it's now finished, but i can't actually come up with a good idea for a name just yet. (pouts) It's a very complicated story...perhaps I'll post excerpts here if they won't let us acknowledge our fans anymore! (raises her angry fists of fury to the sky and shakes them at the FFnet ppl, shouting "WHY!") Anyway, in the end I've been thinking about:

1. The Witch and the Woman (Woman and the Witch?)  
2. Duality  
3. The Rift that Binds  
. The Witch's Heart

Personally I'm not happy with any of them. (frowns) but it'll come eventually, maybe with revisions. My sister wants a sequel in a week. (dies) and I'm letting My Miroku edit them for me, he helps with the pysche of the male character. (nods) he's been a big help. (bangs her head against a wall) Don't get me started on the things that have happened between HIM and I this summer! AHH! Anyway...hope you enjoyed the update...look forward to hearing from ALL of you! Seriously, I don't deserve the lot of you being so loyal and patient! I'm astounded that I'm still alive! That's exactly why I love you all...until next time...leave me a note (winks)


	26. Battle of the Hanyou

**Disclaimer:** Don't sue me please...I have no real claims here, only Shimofuri, Tsukiyume, Taikokajin, Garou (icky, don't want him) and Koinu are mine in any way...and even they are still rooted in the IY world so...yeah...not mine either...(grumbles)

**A/N:** Yes, I feel like I typed this up really fast, so if it sucks, please understand I was feeling motivated by boredom and "the mood" to write, so...please, forgive me? Cuz this is so soon after _I Miss You_'s update that it's almost like I'm in high school again, updating every flippin day...(snickers) well...anyway. This chapter speaks I think, for itself. The only thing I would like to mention is that early in the chapter I **break** from the battle briefly to have a funny, sweet little interlude (that's been requested over and over again btw) of Miroku and Sango back at the Inuyasha family estate, watching their hooligans. (grins) Speaking of those hooligans, I have an **author's note** there too, in which I talk about my planned character traits for the Miroku-Sango children...hehe...make sure you tell me what you think about that! Otherwise...I'm done for now...till next chapter...

**

* * *

Battle of the Hanyou**

Her world was pain. She knew it intimately, like a lover. Everything else around her vanished, ceasing in its entirety. Tendrils of the sharp, biting, torturous sensation raced through her body, tearing at her chest, ripping up and down her spine. Gasping, struggling to breathe and see the world, Tsuki could only see the red of something in front of her and the dreary gray gloom of the sky. Both blotches of color faded in and out with the pulsing of her heart, which seemed to beat in time with the pain running rampant through her.

_Tsukiyume._ The hanyou-eating monster's voice laughed coarsely in her mind, and Tsuki felt the muscles in her neck snap rigid. _Kill the hanyou. Kill the pink bitch's demon whelp._

Tiny sounds of fear and pain escaped her lips, but Tsuki gave them little thought, in deed, she could hardly force herself to breathe, let alone think coherently about anything. She felt, dimly through her haze of agony, her arms moving of their own volition, striking out and grasping something in a hard, iron grip that wasn't her own. Warm flesh caved in around her fingers.

"Tsukiyume!" it was a voice she recognizes, a voice that momentarily pushed aside the pain within her, that made her try to think…but the pain returned quickly, surging back with a vengeance. Even as the voice came again, commandingly, she ignored it and focused more carefully on escaping the pain, on drawing each delicate breath.

"Stop this at once!" the same voice screeched for her attention, but she had nothing to give it. Her eyes fluttered shut even as she felt the stiff, cold, merciless grip harden on the thing bathed in red against the ugly gray of the sky. Breathing, if she just breathed in…and now out…she might live through the ordeal…

_That's right little bitch._ Her tormentor's voice cackled with an evil, sadistic glee. _Just breathe_.

Above her, struggling to do just that through her iron-clad grip, Inuyasha's face was tinged blue, his ears quivering. Half panicked, his golden eyes darted to Shimofuri's bristling, screaming form, but the young demon lord's words were lost to Inuyasha's strangled, wheezing attempts to draw oxygen. He had two choices: suffocate or use his claws to free himself…and probably tear the girl's arm off in the process.

It hardly took a second for him to come name off two very good reasons to survive. He had a mate and a pup to live for, to fight for. Yet even so, he didn't relish the thought of tearing apart an innocent hanyou girl…One thought skittered uselessly across his brain as he started to lift one flexed, clawed hand: _shit._

* * *

"Does my little sweetie want more?" Miroku's violet eyes glimmered with fatherly pride, his nimble fingers ducked in around his baby daughter's lips and chin, scooping free the slobber and drizzled mush from her meal of pre-chewed vegetables and rice. Kasai, identical to her father in appearance with the exception of her gender, squealed and grabbed at his fingers, pulling them into her mouth to gum and suck on. Her wide smile was innocent as she clamped down on his flesh with what few teeth she had. 

Miroku winced. "Sweetie—my fingers aren't food."

She seemed to know that, but preferred using his fingers as some sort of teething toy.

"Sango!" gingerly the monk tried to extract his abused fingers from the baby, only to have her whimper warningly. Miroku paled slightly, and when he called out for his wife a second time his voice had a sharper, more urgent note to it. "Sango! Honey?

Sango appeared, her face drawn, almost haggard. She'd taken to worrying nonstop since Inuyasha had left them so abruptly. "Yes?"

"Do you have the teething toy Kagome brought for us?" he lifted his eyebrows hopefully.

"No." she sighed, pursing her lips, "Shouldn't they be back by now?" Sango scowled, wringing her hands in front of her.

Distractedly, Miroku shrugged, pulling his fingers from Kasai's mouth. The baby began crying immediately, but with a sigh, Miroku scooped her up into his arms, bouncing her. For a moment Kasai was quiet, her violet eyes wide and shocked, then she decided she liked what Miroku was doing, and she giggled, letting out loud, shrill baby laughs.

"Disaster averted!" Miroku grinned proudly up at Sango's hands-on-hips stance, as innocent at that moment as the one-year old bouncing on his knee.

"You're not even listening to me, are you?"

Detecting the slight irritation in her tone, Miroku looked up at her with newfound attention. "Of course I'm listening! You wound me, lovely Sango, beautiful wife of mine…" as if to emphasize her father's words, Kasai squealed happily, waving her plump arms about.

"Miroku," she sighed, still wringing her hands, which were pale as dishtowels, "I'm serious. They should be back by now." She scowled, "What if…something happened to them? Shouldn't we look for them? Shouldn't we do something? You remember that pink-eyed dog demon…"

The monk was finally paying attention. Nodding as he considered her words, Miroku pondered their choices. "I have faith in Inuyasha. Chances are they're in no danger at all, merely taking their time…" but despite his words Miroku's eyebrows met over the bridge of his nose, kissing each other.

"But for _weeks_… and without word to us?"

He had to admit, his lovely wife had a point. Kasai's giggling drew his attention to far simpler, more beautiful things, and slowly, he sighed. "But if we went to search for rumor of them my Sango…" he scowled down at the back of his daughter's head, "There would be no one to protect Kasai and the boys. Only Mayuko." A smirk bloomed on his face, "Shippo was enough of a job all by himself, but with our boys…I'd pity to poor woman."

That stopped Sango too. With her gaze lost on her husband and their yearling daughter, Sango let out a long, wearied breath. "I'm probably being silly anyway, right?" she smiled, but the edges of her lips quivered uncertainly, "I mean Inuyasha can take care of himself, and so can Kagome. They're probably off trying to have another baby or something, maybe they never came back from Kagome's time at all. It's very comfortable there I hear…"

"Yes…" but Miroku found a sudden lump in his throat. He tried, hard, to swallow it, but the thing refused to die the moment he saw Sango's hands still wringing themselves down to the bone.

"I wonder what they're up to right now…" Sango's eyes were glazed over with worry and deep, hard thought.

Miroku choked a little, but forced himself to smile, forced his tone to be light and teasing. "Probably having more fun with Koinu than we are with our little hooligans."

Right on cue they heard their eldest son shouting for assistance and the pained crying of their second-born.

"Mama! Shippo tripped 'Soki again and now he's bleeding all over Uncle Inuyasha's floor!"

"WAAAAaaaaahhhh!"

"I didn't do anything, Sango!"

"Yes he did Mama! It was Shippo's fault, honest!"

"He's lying!"

"Maaaaamaaa! Owie-owie-owie!"

Sango's shoulders sank, one hand rose to cover her eyes. "How about you deal with that and I'll play with Kasai?" she muttered.

Miroku grinned, "Nope, I'm happy right where I am, lovely Sango."

* * *

(A/N: I have all of Miroku and Sango's children's personalities planned out, just so you know. If I get enough requests, and have enough time, I'd love to expand them as original characters in one-shots. In case you're interested in knowing:

**Kohimu**, the oldest, will be toughest, closest to Sango. He'll probably become as good as her heir, the next great demon slayer in the grand tradition of Sango's family and village. Smart like Miroku but modeling himself more after Sango and Inuyasha.

**Tisoki,** the second-born son will be gentler and sweeter, embodying those traits from both Miroku and Sango, he could become a monk perhaps, though he might not be as openly perverted as Miroku. And finally my absolute favorite!

**Kasai** the little girl will become a demon slayer like Kohimu, only to discover that just as she inherited Miroku's looks, she's also inherited his "lecherous genes." Yes that's right, the perverts will be Tisoki and Kasai. I felt that we had to play it up, change it around a little. Inuyasha the manga and anime are strong on women characters, and I shan't flinch there either. Why should Miroku's letch heir be one of his sons, eh? Course she'd handle things a little differently, with a different, womanly style to her lechery, but she'd still be the letch, through and through. Review in and tell me what you think. Hate it, love it, or whatever ;)…)

* * *

"IRON-REAV—" Inuyasha's shout was cut suddenly short by Tsukitume's fingers, which found and pressed hard on his windpipe. Choking, sputtering, the hanyou squirmed, flailing out at the girl, but she ducked and twisted, narrowly missing his swipes. 

"Let her go free!" Shimofuri shook with rage, but in his blue-gray eyes the beginnings of panic had started. Inuyasha would suffocate if he didn't attack his own half-sister…

"You are a fool!" Garou cackled, "Did you think I would so easily be swayed by your request?" he snorted, lifting one hand. From his clenched palm, ugly black swirls of corporeal energy swirled, writhing like snakes. "Say goodbye to the hanyou…"

Hissing once sharply, Shimofuri dashed forward, so quickly that he was a mere streak of dark blue-gray and blue-black hair, caught in the wind. The stench of death and decay in the clearing vanished from his senses as he careened forward, desperate to protect his family, his honor, his life. He sent one clawed hand out toward the monster, unknowingly baring his teeth in a vicious grimace of hate…

Something plowed into him before he could quite reach Garou. The world spun wildly, someone was coughing frantically, struggling to breathe again, and somewhere Garou's sickening voice was croaking out in a harsh, ugly laugh. Tsukiyume's scent assaulted his senses briefly, and abruptly he found himself pinned to the ground with his sister's shiny black hair flowing around him like a curtain, her white dog ears were turned backward atop her head. Her brown eyes were cold and glazed, squeezed into tight slits of pain. She couldn't see him, wasn't seeing him at all.

"Tsuki…" he whispered, feeling hope slip away from him.

"Kill that mongrel!" Garou's angry voice barked at them, rising in a snarling laugh of triumph.

* * *

_Kill that mongrel! Do it now!_ Tsuki shriveled, cowered before the power, the ancient, angry fury she felt in those words, the order they exerted over her body was irresistible. A shudder passed through her, a quiet, stubborn resistance that knew she had to struggle against the dark, terrible power of the voice. But she was so weak, the voice was so strong, it could overpower her emaciated will in seconds. 

She didn't stand a chance.

Claws that she'd pampered her whole life, that had never once drawn blood on another creature, sentient or otherwise, flexed for the first time, full of danger and deadly promise. Part of her saw the flash of those instruments of doom, but the majority of her consciousness was already gone, banished by pain, torture and fatigue. She slashed at the thing below her, just as the terrible voice in her head demanded, the pain seemed to become bearable again, her breathing came a little easier when she gave in.

The thing below her fought back, catching her arms, holding them at bay. Tsuki slumped, her strength beginning to wane, only to feel a rush of darkness pass through her, a strength feeding into her body that was not her own. She cried out as more pain assaulted her, the voice came again, but she couldn't make out its words at all now—it was fading away…

Suddenly there was a new presence inside her mind, gentler, quiet. It pushed away the torrents of pain rushing through her, numbing her. Her vision wavered and blurred, her mind mimicked it, at times coming clear enough for her to have a coherent thought: _Shimofuri!_ She felt tears in her eyes, felt them slip out and saw them sparkle as they landed on her older brother's face.

"Shimofuri…" she whimpered, more tears coming immediately at the sound of his name, and the suddenly distant memory of his rescue, of the red robes of another hanyou with golden eyes.

And then the second presence, which was still masking her tormentor's hold on her, spoke, and she knew, as only those who are dreaming can know, that it was her father. _"Daughter, the time has come…remember what you've promised to do for me…"_

And suddenly Tsukiyume was free of pain, suddenly her body was alive and her mind alert.

And she knew what she had to do.

* * *

The world swam back into focus for Inuyasha as oxygen returned to his cells. He pushed himself hurriedly to his feet, struggling not to sway as he did so, and took in the situation in the space of time it takes most humans to blink. 

Shimofuri was pinned by his sister, who he'd never intentionally harm, even if it meant that he would die as a result. Garou was enjoying the torture, his eyes glued to the scene, but his body still pointed at Inuyasha, indicating more interest than he let on. _A trap_, the hanyou thought, _that lowdown, good-for-nothing bastard!_

Knowing that it was a trap did nothing to sway Inuyasha's temper, caution wasn't foremost apart of his nature. Ripping Tessaiga from its sheath, the blade transformed, glimmering bright white, a snake newly shed of its skin and ready to strike. Aiming immediately at Garou, the enraged hanyou shouted his infamous battle cry: _"Wind Scar!"_

Light flashed, power pulsed. The earth, stained and stinking with the blood of hundreds of innocent hanyous, ripped and convulsed as the sword's power ripped through it. Dust swirled, the wind moaned. Shouts erupted into the air, one of them female.

Inuyasha squinted through one golden eye, lips curled up over his fangs as he struggled to take in the world. Through a settling haze of dust and debris brought up from the power of the blast, Inuyasha couldn't see any sight of Garou—for a moment he dared to hope the task was over and done with. Yet, just as he opened both eyes, as he drew in one slow, careful breath to scent for the monster, he heard the girl's voice again, screaming at him.

"Run! _Run! He's coming_!"

Ears flicking, and coughing at the thickness of the dust in the air, Inuyasha tried to make out the girl's form through the haze, and scowled disgustedly. "What are you—"

"Inuyasha!" Shimofuri interrupted him, his figure suddenly appearing, a streak of blue-black movement sprinting through the dust, "The furui, it's—"

The dust abruptly darkened, making Inuyasha blink in bafflement. _What the hell?_ He opened his mouth to shout the question to the air, but the curtain of black dust swamped him, pressing against his chest, his face, his arms and legs. It took on a solid shape and constricted around him, tightening until he gasped, choking at the pressure. The stench of hanyou blood assaulted him, and for a moment, as he squeezed his eyes tightly shut against the dark presence, he could _feel_ their souls, brushing against his own. He could see them, wolf and dog hanyous, cat hanyous, bear hanyous…a myriad of suffering souls, cut down before their time, captured to be the life source of a vampire, a creature long since undead and far from belonging on their world.

Faintly he realized that this demon had somehow learned—a little like Naraku—to shape shift. When the Wind Scar had torn through the earth, heading straight at Garou, he'd somehow managed to change forms, vaporizing his essence into the black dust. The black, evil magic swirled, pulsing through the cloud, the aura of it was like sandpaper against his own body and soul.

He felt gravity knock him off balance, and he tumbled, his head spinning. His grip on Tessaiga slipped and the sword flew out of his sight, vanishing in the artificial darkness of the cloud. The weight solidified then and shifted, moving to pin and stop him. Soon Inuyasha's claws pressed against another's full flesh. When the motion stopped he choked, gasping for air, and tasted the dirt. The pressure on his back momentarily made him recall the thousands of times Kagome had punished him, sending him face first into the dirt…but this moment was not about punishment or the ancient tension between he and Kagome—it was about battle and life and death. He understood those things _very_ well.

Garou's deep, rasping voice caught his attention then, "You fool! Did you think your pathetic blast could stop_ me?"_

"Bastard!" he tensed, straining against the demon's weight. "Get your ass off me!" disgust and indignity disappeared completely when he felt Garou's breath on his neck, smelled the stench of blood—hanyou's blood—and hunger.

"It's rare that I find a male inu-hanyou," his voice had turned to a low purr, making Inuyasha's stomach clench up, threatening to evacuate its contents, "You're a delicious little surprise for the Pink Bitch to send my way."

"Shimofuri!" the girl shouted, somewhere Inuyasha couldn't see, and the hanyou bit his lip, cursing as he struggled to free himself again—but the demon was so _heavy!_ He was heavier than any normal human or demon should've been at his size…

One of Garou's clawed hands closed over one side of his neck, and Inuyasha felt a stab of electricity spurt through him. Stars flashed and danced in his vision. Pain swarmed through his head then, and Inuyasha's world faded out to black. Screaming briefly before dizziness claimed him, Inuyasha noticed with horror that his heartbeat was slowing dramatically, failing. _This can't be happening, dammit! Kagome, Koinu!_ His hands clutched at the ground in vain.

There was a loud snarling sound, and suddenly, with a whoosh and a muffled grunt, Inuyasha found himself free of the demon's weight. Rolling slowly, panting through the terrible burning pain inside his chest as his heart picked up speed again, Inuyasha started to push himself up off the ground. His legs shook, his strength was sapped. Where was the demon? Where was Shimofuri? Where was the stupid girl! Where the hell was his sword?

Grumbling weakly, the hanyou blinked, but his vision was blurred. Each breath made his lungs burn as if they were on fire. He heard grunts and shouting, Garou and Shimofuri he guessed, scuffling with one another. He shook his head, breathing in deeply…and suddenly bent over double, retching as his stomach betrayed him.

The sound of footsteps—light and dainty—caught his attention, though the noise of it made his head start to throb. He recognized the scent of the girl, hanyou as he was. She was making whimpering sounds of worry and distress, but for the life of him, Inuyasha couldn't seem to force his eyes or his mind to focus properly on her.

"Get my sword!" he shouted in the direction her footsteps came from, but she didn't move. Instead she came closer and knelt beside him. He tried, stubbornly, to growl at her to make her do his bidding, but it came out more as a moan of pain. Nausea nearly overcame him a second time as he mustered up the energy to speak to her. "Yo, girl—my sword, _now…"_

"He got you." She murmured, and Inuyasha felt one of her small hands on his arm.

Shaking his head, blinking his eyes, trying to make them focus, Inuyasha ripped his arm away from her—and lost his delicate balance. For the second time in minutes he tasted dirt, but this time it didn't stir a fond memory but a horrible realization: something really was wrong. He groaned one weak curse out before the pain in his chest returned, stealing his breath away. "Damn."

"I can heal you." The girl's voice hovered somewhere above him, faint, almost trembling. Inuyasha found that he didn't have the strength to answer her. "The demon—he did something to you. He did something to me too…" she sounded as if she might cry for a short moment, and then Inuyasha felt her rest her hands on his back. "It's a blackness on your soul, from his touch. I can heal it…"

There was an abrupt scream of pain somewhere in the distance, and Inuyasha felt the earth shudder slightly as something—or rather someone—fell, hard. The girl beside him gasped and cried out. Her hands on his back clenched up into fists.

"Shimofuri! Shimofuri! No!"

Inuyasha winced at her screams, but didn't have the strength to tuck his ears backward to shelter them from the noise. Stars danced in his dying vision, flickering black and steadily blotting out the whole gray, out-of-focus world. _I'm dying_, he realized detachedly, _dying._

"Tsuki!" Shimofuri's voice was tight with pain, "Run! Just…run…"

Garou's cackling sent a second pulse of electricity through Inuyasha's body, robbing him again of his breath. "It's over, little dog. Don't even bother trying to tell her what's good for her—she's going to die same as you! My spells are too powerful, too _ancient_ for your pathetic bodies. You may have caught me unawares once, Shimo-chan, but you won't win now! Your soul is _mine!"_

Shimofuri's proud young voice rose in a scream of agony. Tsukiyume cried out as well—not from pain, but from fear, terror. She was crying, Inuyasha could smell it.

"Die Shimo-chan, make sure you tell that pink bitch mother of yours that I thank her for the lovely inu-hanyou snack she sent me, your sister and _especially_ the male…" at Garou's last word, Inuyasha's body tensed, his heart started racing, his lungs burned. Pain exploded inside his head.

His scream echoed Shimofuri's, cutting the early spring air like a steak knife, slaughtering the innocence of the world so soon in the new year.

* * *

Her father's voice spoke up inside her mind, pushing aside her terror, her fear, the lingering fatigue and pain still riding within her after Garou's spell. The time had come. 

_Now!_

Tsukiyume spread her palms over the silver haired hanyou's back. Tears oozed out of her eyes, dribbled down her cheeks, and slipped away, landing on the hanyou's red robes. She pressed her weight onto his back, heard him choking, gasping through his agony. Something rose within her, rippling, frothing, eager to race to the surface. It flowed through her, rising from the deep, secret wells within her soul, and raced down the length of her arms, through her hands, and into the hanyou's body.

Purple-blue light exploded around her and the red robed hanyou. Tsukiyume's hands shook as the power flew from her, reaching out and cleansing the dark spell that had grabbed onto the hanyou's soul, binding it under Garou's control. She felt him jerk powerfully underneath her hands, thought she could feel his soul regaining command over his ailing body.

"You little bitch!" Garou's roar of rage made Tsukiyume look up, her brown eyes wide with terror as the demon strode toward her. Her eyes fell on the blue stone that hung around his neck, it glowed with an eerie phosphorescence that she knew was born of the souls he'd stolen and imprisoned inside it.

Her father's voice spoke up within her, guiding her. _"He is indestructible as long as he wears that stone. And with each battle he must draw more of his stored souls to recover and sustain himself. The souls he uses are lost forever…"_ She felt her insides curdle, like soured milk. The ebb and flow of the swirling dark, evil magic around him pulsed, touching upon the hidden spiritual power that dwelt within her own soul. Once, she knew, she'd been destined to lose her soul within that very same blue-glowing stone.

The purple light about her and the red-robed hanyou vanished as Tsuki's horror made her falter. She stumbled backwards, whimpering as pain returned, once again coursing in brief, sharp spurts about her body.

"How did you free yourself from my control?" he demanded, his ugly, beady brown eyes squinted at her, disgusted and full of hatred. His face was somehow longer, pointier, less and less human as he approached. His back hunched over, his fingers grew thicker and meatier, the claws blacker and dirtier.

"Answer me little bitch!" His skin was gray, like an intestinal worm's. Tsuki whimpered and continued to back away, her eyes glued to him as she went. The demon leered at her, sickeningly, and made a dash toward her—moving straight over the fallen, seemingly dead body of the red robed hanyou.

Tsuki screamed, holding up her hands in a helpless motion of self-defense…but the attack never came. When she slowly peeked past her upraised arms, she gaped as she saw that the hanyou dressed in red had sprung up at the last second and slashed at the demon. Blood was a thick stench in the air, a disgusting reddish mist. Garou's face was purple, twisted in silent pain. His eyes lit with an inner fire, blazing a bright Halloween orange.

There was a gaping slash from Inuyasha's claws running from his shoulder to his thigh. Blood spurted, frothing and foaming, splattering over the chilled sandy earth. It slipped past the demon's finger, thick and dark, a red that was almost purple.

Inuyasha cracked his knuckles, his face set in a mask of cold rage. "Didn't see that coming, did you, asshole?" he sneered, "Didn't think that maybe one of your hanyous would bite back, did you?"

Garou flashed his teeth in a savage grimace, that could almost have been a mirthless smile. "This is the second time you've underestimated me." He rasped, and suddenly, at his neck, the stone flickered brightly, snapping to life.

A blinding wave of light rolled over the meadow for a split second, making Tsukiyume and Inuyasha both shield their eyes, hissing in pain at it. The second the light cleared, both of them found themselves staring at Garou, now pain free and completely healed. His laughter rose at their shocked expressions, bitterly triumphant.

"You moronic dogs! I am _immortal!_ You will never destroy me so long as I have hanyou souls to feed on!"

"You disgusting piece of shit! You're nothing but a _coward!"_ Inuyasha raged, once again cracking his knuckles, "How about we see just how immortal you really are?"

Garou's grin grew impossibly large—and kept getting bigger—as his snout narrowed and elongated, as his eyes and teeth bulged out, his legs buckled and reshaped, his back bent and twisted. Dark, scraggly, ugly fur broke free of his clothing and skin. Small pointed ears appeared atop his head. Inside his mouth a purple-black tongue lolled.

Inuyasha cursed, rushing toward Tsukiyume and grabbing up Tessaiga where it'd fallen during his tumble. The girl gaped, still half-crying as he dragged her away from furui demon's bizarre transformation. The beast let loose with an eerie, wavering wail, some sort of prehistoric howl that spoke of bloodlust and blind killing, of stupidity and arrogance, the battle to preserve oneself at all costs and to squash all others as threats and competitors.

Hurriedly setting Tsukiyume beside Shimofuri's fallen body, he took a protective stance in front of the siblings, brandishing a transformed Tessaiga. "Come and get it, asshole!" he shouted at the beast.

It turned its blocky, square-shaped head toward him, canine teeth as long as daggers glinted in the gloomy sunlight. Garou was still grinning at him. Inuyasha took quick notice of the blue glow of the stone at the beast's neck.

Leveling Tessaiga at the demon, he shouted: _"Wind Scar!"_

The streak of light and power rushed with a _whoosh _over the ground, tearing it apart as it went. Inuyasha watched the beast carefully, trying to see if Garou would transform himself into the accursed swarm of black dust again—but he didn't. Instead the beast leaped and rolled, avoiding the primary blast, and leered once again at Inuyasha's blustering red robed form, triumphant.

It let loose with a high keening chuckle—similar to a hyena's call, and spoke in a deep, ugly rasping whisper. _"Inuyasha is your name—I felt it on your soul. You are the male dog demon of high birth I have been waiting for all my life. Your blood and your soul will give my people rebirth, and soon we will walk over the whole of this earth, we shall crush your bones beneath our feet. It was your whelp with the human bitch at the well!"_

"Like hell I'm going to do anything short of killing you!" Inuyasha spat, white ears laying flat, "I wouldn't even let me "human bitch" put flowers on your grave!"

Garou's beady eyes, black in his now canine-like head and muzzle, glimmered sharply as he narrowed them. _"It must either be you or the whelp—one of you must die!"_

Dimly, Inuyasha noticed Tsukiyume's healing purple-blue glow rising behind him and thanked the heavens that he'd bought her enough time and distractions to save Shimofuri. But he couldn't wait any longer. It was time to destroy the monster.

"The only thing that's going to die today is you, bastard!" with a scream, Inuyasha whipped Tessaiga through the air, summoning all of the sword's powers, "WINDSCAR!"

The light streaked over the ground, dust rose in the air again, the wind picked up, swirling. The trees on the other side of the clearing whipped with its power. But as Inuyasha hefted Tessaiga up again for another blow, he saw that although Garou had been hit by the blast head-on, he was completely unharmed. The blue glow of the stone at the beast's neck pulsed brightly, agains making him hiss with pain at its strength. He cursed bitterly, realizing that even when he did hit Garou full on, the beast healed instantly and kept coming…racing straight toward him.

_How am I supposed to fight something that won't die?_

Inuyasha cracked the knuckles on one fist and steadied himself as he sent a second blast from Tessaiga, despite its futility. "Take Shimofuri and run!" he shouted over his shoulder, gritting his teeth. _I'm sorry Kagome…I'm trying as hard as I can!_

The blast cut through the soil again, roaring, but Inuyahsa could easily see Garou's glowing blue stone, weaving between the blasts of energy, completely unaffected by them. The leering triumphant grin was still there, and something inside Inuyasha cowered, remembering the beast's words: _your blood and your soul will give my people rebirth…_

_No!_

But then, out of the dust, Garou leapt, barreling straight toward him, and Inuyasha was frozen, seeing his death plummeting straight toward him, clothed in its ugly, threadbare fur. _I always knew being a half-demon would get me killed_, he found himself thinking with a strange calm sarcasm, _but I never imagined it'd be quite like this_. No, indeed, he'd imagined that death would come to him wearing white robes and armor and boasting Tenseiga and Tokijin…

And then from behind him, all in that one, slowed split-second, he heard the slow ring of a sword being drawn from its sheath: _Sesshomaru._

* * *

_Endnote:_ Yep, for leaving you there, I know you hate me. (grins) but really, is this as bad as last time? Hmm? And is my writing up to par? I wrote this so bleepin fast for what I do lately...(grumbles) felt like it was too fast for it to be any good. But I really wanted to get the Miroku-Sango piece out here, and also to kill Garou. We need to bleepin kill him, right? (winks) And then it's off to Taikokajin...and BOY guys, boy oh boy do I have HER fate planned out now, I think...you'll be so...well...either startled or throughly satisfied. hehe. Answering reviews now is, I've heard, against the FFnet rules...but frankly they can shove it up where the sun don't shine for all I care. So here comes my announcement: IF YOU HAVE A BIG QUESTION YOU WANT ANSWERED just ask me and I'll answer it here. To hell with those ppl who say I can't speak to you guys...(grumbles) Part of the joy of this whole posting fanfiction business is replying...though for me getting to my email these days is difficult b/c I use the online crappola stuff. (sniffles, no one emails me now that I'm in college!) Anyway...enough babbling, eh? Review in asap and tell me if I suck (blushes) Later all! 


	27. Troubling Decisions

**Disclaimer:** Yadda yadda yadda, you know and I know that I don't own 'em.

**A/N:** It is SO late right now that all I'm going to say is that I wrote most of this up in a short period of timeand I think it stinks. I'vc ebeen suffering writer's block lately. Either I'm doing stuff for class or I'm thinking or talking to the stupid womanizing best friend of mine that I seem to have like...developed something for. Yeah...he French kissed me today. If my parents knewI think they would burn me at the stake. He was my first french kiss and he was good (grins dumbly) I am very stupid...but yeah, question's comments, I'm about ready to die since it's 5:30 and I'm not asleep yet...night, er morning...yeah...

**

* * *

Troubling Decisions**

_Your hatred and cruelty have pushed everyone you love away from you, my lady._

Taikokajin tilted her head sharply, her features tensing with something akin to distaste. She laughed once, short and harshly into her empty chambers. Her hair, so white it was nearly transparent, flowed around her messily. She'd risen that morning and promptly realized that she had almost no maids left after her battle with the miko…

It was early morning. Light streamed in from the open screens, a scent of tranquility and sweetness, the first spring pollen, drifted in from the window. It was going to be a wonderful day, but Taikokajin felt nothing less than miserable.

Her hair was a mess without the help of her many personal maids to comb it out, oil it, and then style it however she saw fit. This day she had to look like a harmless, beautiful woman. Her brother and her uncle were coming to speak over the trade between the provinces within the Middle Lands. It was tedious, boring things to speak about, but Taikokajin couldn't forget about it—after all it was her turn to host the quarterly meeting. If either of her male relatives saw fit, they'd plow her under. If they knew she'd lost her daughter to a monster and gone mad with worry, sacrificing her son and tracking down her distant, famous half demon cousin Inuyasha, they'd usurp her for sure. She'd lose her lands, her wealth, and her position.

Her well-being depended on how well she could act before the others, how well she could appear before them, neat, tidy, beautiful and orderly—as if nothing were wrong at all.

And there were no maids to help her. Only the idiotic Nikimi.

Her long, wicked claws bit into the delicate white skin of her palms. I_ should've just killed her,_ she berated herself angrily, and had the simple thought of shouting for the last maid—Nikimi—and ordering the foolish little ninny to tell the soldiers to kill the miko…or better still, she could order poison slipped into the little bitch's tea…

A hard, cruel smile curved over her pale lips. _Yes…poison. She was supposed to die under that monster's curse anyway._

_Your hatred and your cruelty have made enemies of your kin. You have made enemies of those that would stand by you. You've destroyed your own future…_

"No, _you_ destroyed my future!" standing up readily, she swayed for a moment, and then grumblingly pulled her gray-pink robes more tightly around her, composing herself. She focused her thoughts, pushing away the quiet, whispering voice that laughed snidely within her head. It came using her father's voice, but speaking the message that her human mate, the priest named Kokoro, had often taunted her with.

She shuddered, looking quickly around the well-lighted room, the spring breeze suddenly a little too chilly for her thinner under robe. Fussily, she tied her sash, closing the robe against the cold firmly. "I didn't ruin my future," she snarled into the air of the empty room, "You and that bastard priest master that trained you did."

The room gave her no answer.

Abruptly embarrassed of herself, Taikokajin scoffed and hurried to the door of her personal chambers. The hallway was full of a slight breeze and whistled past her pale hair as she moved from her chambers to the mirrored dressing room. As she'd partly expected, Nikimi wasn't in the room waiting for her, as Momo or Mitori would have. Taikokajin snarled at her image in the mirrors of the room. In the gray light from the screened windows she could see the lines of weariness and stress in her cheeks, around her mouth and her eyes.

Your_ hatred ages you, as does taking the innocent lives of others. It aged your soul first, and then moved into your flesh. It is like a disease…_

Something cold and ugly flared inside Taikokajin's chest. The light from the screens seemed to dip and change, lightening and darkening. The voice, she knew, was only in her mind, it had to be—but when she looked in the mirror she could almost suppose she saw the light in the room change, shifting and growing. It formed the flitting ghost shapes she so feared.

And this time the voice hadn't spoken like either the monk or her father. It choose instead to whisper to her in Haiseishoku's voice. She could still remember his blue-eyed gaze on her. He'd been awed at their first ceremonial meeting before the wedding day. Later that same gaze was hungry on their wedding night. It'd terrified her, left her feeling raw and vulnerable for the first time in her life. She'd been timid with mourning—her beloved father's death was still so fresh and raw on her heart. Haiseishoku had been older and loving with her…but she had no use for him as soon as she overcame her guilt and refused to be treated as a woman, to be seen as less than her husband and mate.

She'd sent him away almost the moment Shimofuri was born alive and healthy. He served her purposes as nothing but a stud dog in the end, and she'd made sure he understood that. The Middle Lands were hers, not his through marriage. Haiseishoku hadn't liked that idea at all, but really, if he'd been in her place he would've expected her to play the same role, as only the female he used to carry and birth his pups. She'd won in the end, even if she'd had to kill him to do it. She didn't care how she won her battles as long as she won them. She would rule alone, she would be strong as her father had always intended her to be.

She turned purposefully away from the mirrors and looked back toward the door. "Nikimi!" she shouted, though it was doubtful that the maid would hear her…

Her pink eyes widened, goggling as she saw a shadow appear on the screened walls, and _smelled_ Haiseishoku. She held her breath without even realizing it, panicked and frozen with her wild fear.

_"You are like a disease to the Middle Lands, Taikokajin."_ Haisheishoku's voice spoke to her through the thin walls of her dressing room. The shadow on the screens took a step closer to the door, his robes moving over the bends and ripples in the screens. A clawed hand, with long, strong fingers, reached for the door to slide it open and confront her…

"No!" leaping to her feet, and nearly stumbling over her robes to do it; Taikokajin threw herself against the door, holding it shut. Her breathing was like a hurricane in her own ears. The world seemed to spin. The lighting in the room dimmed and dimmed, growing darker and grayer. It was as if the sun had passed behind a cloud.

"You can't come in with your lies! I won't let you use me!" she shouted at the door when it jumped against her clawed hands. The shadow on the other side of the door withdrew, seeming to shrink slightly.

"My lady?" a whimpering, quavering voice called out. It was Nikimi.

Suddenly, and with a small amount of terror, Taikokajin saw that the shadow she'd been so sure was her dead husband and Shimofuri's father, was actually a thin, lithe woman's shadow. The claws she'd seen were tiny, fragile nails.

She withdrew from the door a few steps, taking a couple deep breaths. "Come in, Nikimi."

The door slid open with a grating sound and a startled, wide-eyed Nikimi blinked at her from beyond the threshold. Seeing her mistress's angry, upset expression, she immediately dropped to the floor in a bow. "Please forgive me, lady…I meant no offence…"

"Offence?" Taikokajin spat out, "Offence! There's been nothing that could offend anyone! There was no dishonor at all! Everything I did was right!"

"Yes, milady, of course milady." Nikimi quivered, afraid for her life at the rage she heard in Taikokajin's voice.

There was a long pause, and slowly, Taikokajin breathed out, relaxing. Nikimi heard the demon woman's small footsteps retreat to stand in front of the mirrors again, staring into them solemnly. "Hurry up and dress me you stupid girl—today is an important day for me. I must look my best today. Can you manage?"

"Yes, my lady." Truly there was nothing else she could say, even if the words were an utter lie. Cautiously, Nikimi glanced up and took in the stiffness of her mistress's back and spine, and the hard set of her face. She kept her unease from showing itself on her own face when she sat up, speaking. "A red kimono for today then?"

"Yes...and the moment I am free of my idiot kinsmen, I must ask you to bring me the miko."

"It is no problem, mistress." Nikimi bowed again, making sure her silent scowl was hidden. Hadn't Taikokajin come to her senses considering Lady Inuyasha yet? Nikimi didn't want to die or be severely wounded while serving the useless, impractical whims of her lady.

"Bring me the miko without the pup. Do you understand what I am asking?"

"You're going to kill her, milady?" Nikimi squeezed her eyes shut against the surprise and disapproval she heard inside her own voice.

"No—but while she is with me, I want you to take that pup from her and hide him."

"But…why? Why mistress? Why her pup when he is—"

"Do not question me Nikimi!" Taikokajin shouted and then, twisting her torso around so she could stare at Nikimi directly, she scowled, "Where's that kimono?"

Nikimi lowered her eyes, murmuring, "Yes, milady." She stared at her hands clasped in her lap, her fingers pressed so tightly against the flesh on her wrists that it was bright white with pressure. In her mind's eye she could see Momo and Mitori and the guards facing off with the powerful miko woman. She could also see the gentle woman's warm brown eyes when she gazed at her child. She could remember Kagome's voice shrilly calling out her name, asking for help…and she hadn't come. Nikimi's face burned, her hands wrung each other as if she was trying to squeeze moisture from fabric.

She moved hurriedly away, looking quickly for Taikokajin's red, formal kimono.

* * *

Garou stopped, his massive body sliding to a halt, suddenly cautious. Dust, stirred from Inuyasha's blasts with the Tetsusaiga and from Garou's massive paws, billowed out around his form. His tongue lolled, long and coming to a point, almost in the style of a reptile. His eyes gleamed with something that might have been suspicion or alarm—he was looking behind Inuyasha, his legs stiff.

Inuyasha clutched his sword a little more tightly, growling beneath his breath. "Stupid show off Sesshomaru…" he knew his older brother was likely behind him, standing at the edge of the clearing, his sword drawn proudly. He'd be showing off, silently trying to announce his brilliance and compare it to Inuyasha's incompetence. It was youth against age, full breed facing off with half breed.

And yet, to see Garou stop his charge, hesitating—Inuyasha was filled with a fast hope. It set his heart racing faster than the prospect of dying. If he lived he would see Kagome again. He would get to raise Koinu and see the births of more pups—his pups—to keep his firstborn company. Kagome's face loomed in his mind then, his own personal goddess, a deity that he lived to impress.

_I'm going to live_. He vowed, silently, readying the wind scar for another blow, whether it was useless or not.

"Wind Scar!" he shouted, whipping the sword at the ugly, dog-like demon before him. Light blazed, rippled, and scraped along the ground.

Garou howled; his animal voice strangely high pitched like a hyena's. The wind scar tore through him. Purplish blood spurted briefly, only to be closed by the blue glow of his soul stone. More hanyou souls were snuffed into oblivion, sacrificed to restore Garou's flesh.

"Would you die already!" the hanyou shouted, readying his sword for another stalling, but otherwise useless swing—and then a most hated, but familiar scent reached his nose.

Out of the corner of his right eye he sensed movement. There was a white streak and Inuyasha felt Tetsusaiga pulse in his hands as it recognized the presence and close proximity of its mate, the Tenseiga. Sesshomaru had finally come, taking his place beside his younger brother in preparation for battle.

"Little brother." Sesshomaru murmured, standing at Inuyasha's side. He leveled Tenseiga, letting the sword give off its bluish glow. It stood in his brother's single hand, parallel to Tetsusaiga. Sesshomaru didn't fail to notice the misty stirrings of air around the Tetsusaiga's blade, the first signs before Inuyasha let loose with yet another wind scar. "Why do you so feebly waste your effort?"

"Shut up!" the hanyou barked, irritated. His hands twisted on Tetsusaiga's hilt. "I don't need you. It was that damned Shimo-pup that went and got you!"

"Yes, because he is not the fool you are." He waved Tenseiga once in a swift, controlled arc, making a sweeping gesture toward where Garou was still standing. For the first time, Inuyasha realized that Garou had not taken his eyes off of Sesshomaru and Tenseiga. The ancient demon quailed before the blade, recognizing it as a sword that restored the natural order, a blade that could resurrect the dead or banish the undead.

Realization dawned on Inuyasha, and slowly, despite his older brother's arrogant presence, he smirked. Around Garou's neck the blue stone that the beast stored the hanyou souls that he fed on, the very things that kept him tied to the living world, glowed and pulsed. The magic that bound the souls within the Stone was the same that pulsed through Tenseiga. The Tenseiga could easily sever the bonds and destroy Garou's dark magic.

The ancient soul-eating demon had no defense against such a weapon, and he knew it. There was no way he could face such a weapon and escape with the hundreds, perhaps even thousands of hanyou souls he'd collected over the years. He would be left with nothing to sustain him, nothing to protect his own ancient soul from being wiped clear of the earth.

Faced with the eerie glow rising from Sesshomaru's Tenseiga, Garou knew he had no choice but to flee or risk vanishing forever from existence. If he died, all of his people's hopes and dreams died with him, disappearing into time forever.

Garou would flee, like a coward.

A gleam within the ancient beast's mud-brown eyes flickered once, and suddenly Sesshomaru and Inuyasha found themselves staring at a noxious cloud of what appeared to be dust. In reality it was something closer to miasma, a sort of energy form that demons could use when a swift escape was necessary for survival. Deep within the eddying swirls of the dark tempest Inuyasha and the others could make out the lingering blue glow of Garou's dark power and the suffering souls he kept constrained long after their unnatural, wrongful deaths.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha was the first to vocalize the group's collective realization aloud. "He's gonna run away!" Tetsuseiga's blade wisped with tendrils of energy, fully prepared for another lash of the wind scar, but Sesshomaru was faster.

In a flicker of whitish movement, a mere blue to Inuyasha, Sesshomaru had leapt forward, slashing with his single arm in a wide circular thrust. Though the blow was dealt seemingly to nothing but air, the motion sent out arcs of bright, shining energy that hurtled toward the foul shroud of dark dust. The Tenseiga's blade glowed eerily, pulsing with the same rhythm as the deep, iridescent glow within the noxious cloud of Garou's miasma.

As the bolts of energy from Tenseiga reached Garou's cloud and sliced into and through it, there was a brief, blinding flash, and then a terrible, high inhuman shriek pierced the air. The sound rose octaves high and then rolled back down the scale, every note managing to tear at all four of the listener's eardrums agonizingly. It cackled and cracked, screeched and keened, like nails scratching over chalkboard.

Sesshomaru paused where he stood, the foremost of Garou's opponents, frozen by the sound. His face was lightly twisted in a scowl, the corners of his lips tweaked and curled with a mixture of disdain and his own torment. He held Tenseiga drawn and ready, but the bright blue glow around the blade dissipated slightly. His golden eyes remained stoic and calm as he waited, tensely, for the battle between Tenseiga's powers, and Garou's to finish and reveal the victor on its own.

Behind him Inuyasha fell, cursing loudly and in the foulest language he knew. Tetsusaiga rested on the ground, the swirls of the wind scar completely forgotten and gone from it as the hanyou cringed, trying to flatten his white ears atop his head. Tsukiyume writhed on the ground beside her blearily recovering brother; both of them were gasping at the tortuous noise and struggling to cover their ears.

Growling, though the sound was impossible to hear past the screeching, Inuyasha gave in, dropping Tetsusaiga and using his hands to cover his ears instead. He squinted at his brother through one angry amber eye. "Fucking hell—just _kill_ it!"

The sound stopped abruptly, fading away into the sky, into the calm waters of the lake, into the innocent tawny sands of the beach. Inuyasha blinked only once and retook his fighting stance, wrenching up Tetsusaiga out of the ground. Behind him he heard the sands shift as Shimofuri rose to his feet finally, breathing roughly. He could also hear the hanyou girl sniffle as she too recovered.

Where the dark cloud of miasma had once pulsed, swirling as it prepared to whisk Garou away—much as Naraku had for uncountable years done just the same to escape Inuyasha's attacks—now there stood no more than a man once more. Naked, with skin gray like a corpse's and covered in thick, wiry brown hair, he was caught between his attempt at a human form and an animal form. Garou's snout was longer, his teeth bigger than they should've been in his mouth. His hands and legs were more like paws, rounded and with short fingers and rounded, stubby toes.

But his dirt-brown eyes were the same, and they burned with a desperate, feverish hatred—and fear. Around his neck the stone that had once glowed so brightly and powerfully with its dark power, now was nothing more than a dull, bluish tinted rock. The Tenseiga's magic had won and severed Garou's tie to the hanyou souls that could sustain him.

Sesshomaru abruptly ended the silent stare down between the all the opponents by sheathing Tenseiga in a slow, ritualistic movement. "You do not belong here." He spoke quietly toward Garou, seemingly uncaring whether or not the beast heard his words, "I suggest you do the honorable thing and take your own life. But no matter your decision, Old One, my task is done here."

Proudly, Sesshomaru turned on one foot and strode unblinkingly to his bristling, confused hanyou brother. "Inuyasha—you will not kill that beast."

"The hell I won't!" he lifted Tetsusaiga and turned murderous eyes on Garou's seemingly stricken, half-human form. The ancient demon's face was set in an ugly mask of snarling hatred—but Inuyasha could easily scent the wind from the stinking beast, and it was rank with fear. He hesitated only a moment, which was long enough for Sesshomaru to speak again.

"Inuyasha, it is not for you to kill."

"What the—" the hanyou's blustering words were cut short by a small, female voice that arose from behind him.

"He is mine."

Shouldering Shimofuri out of the way slightly, Tsukiyume took a position beside Inuyasha, her orange-rimmed brown eyes solemn. Uncertainly, Inuyasha risked a glance between Garou, who was still motionless for the moment recovering his breath, and Shimofuri and Sesshomaru. He felt a small tremor of doubt pass through him when he noted that Sesshomaru had already vanished. Shimofuri, meanwhile, was not looking at him at all, but rather had begun loosening the sash that kept his sword bound to his waist.

With a sudden shrieking howl, Garou drew Inuyasha's attention again. The demon was once again a dog-like beast, with a boxy head, small pointed ears, beady eyes and a long, stiff tail. It charged headlong at them, foamy slather gushing from its jaws. Huge canine teeth gleamed white against its corpse-like gray skin, stood out sharply against the sparse, wiry brown hair.

The beast spoke again in the same ugly whisper that made the fine hairs all over Inuyasha's body stand on edge. _"I will kill you, Inuyasha! The other hanyous were nothing but useless meat! But with your death we will live again! The time of the inu youkai is finished!"_

"Get real asshole!" snarling, Inuyasha let loose another wind scar to try and deflect the charging demon before pivoting swiftly on his feet. Seconds after landing he heard the beast's horrible screeching wails and scented new blood in the clearing.

But as the dust cleared the hanyou's ears fell backward with distress. The wind scar had only managed to heavily injure the demon. Garou limped weakly, his purple tongue lolling, the slather dribbling from his mouth full of brownish blood. Deep gashes that nearly cut the beast in thirds coursed his body, spurting blood. Only in the beast's beady eyes did there still loom a malice, a powerful ill-will.

Garou pinned his eyes on Inuyasha, speaking raggedly through a muzzle never made in the first place for human words but made even clumsier with injury and pain. _"You may destroy my body, but never my soul."_ His eyes narrowed, seeming to pin Inuyasha in place, _"I have your miko's soul bound to me, hanyou. When I die she will become my host—and perhaps through her the whelp too. I will use them to destroy you. Submit to me now, or I will use what you love most to ruin you…"_

Inuyasha's breath choked, wrath and rage and fury faltered suddenly. He spotted Tsukiyume and Shimofuri moving behind Garou, caught the glint of Ribikou's blade as it was drawn not by the youkai Shimofuri but by Tsukiyume the hanyou. The voices carried to him, but the horror that stifled his breath caught in his lungs, leaving him powerless. He stared once more at Garou's dark, treacherous eyes, saw them dulling over as death drew near.

From behind Garou, Tsukiyume leapt forward, much as Inuyasha might've done, and plunged the long, thin length of Shimofuri's Ribikou into the demon's haunches. Fresh blood spurted, hot to the chilly spring air. The massive corded muscles in Garou's legs quivered, giving way and failing. With one short wailing cry, the beast collapsed.

The sharp, challenging gleam in Garou's beady eyes never once faltered, his stare never left Inuyasha as he fell and finally succumbed.

* * *

"My lady…?" Nikimi slid open the door to Kagome's room cautiously, her eyes wide and frightened. "Lady Inuyasha?"

From deeper within the room, deep throated sounds of pain came, as well as a tiny child's whimpering.

Slowly, Nikimi stepped into the dark room, sliding window screens open with a clatter and pushing aside the outer shutters. Light flooded the room and revealed a futon layered with dark furs and blankets heaped high over a very pale young woman. A bedpan lied beside it, reeking of stomach acids.

Uncertainty warred within Nikimi as she caught sight of a small pair of bluish eyes peeking out from underneath the thick layers of furs. The baby whimpered once and then withdrew, like a frightened mouse, hiding from her view.

Taikokajin wanted the pup, but Nikimi was reluctant to fly so blindly in the face of all that was right just because her mistress ordered it. And yet, when the dangers were weighed considering which was more likely to harm her at the moment—sickened miko woman or enraged demon woman—Nikimi could only see one outcome that would preserve her own skin easily…

She swallowed hard, and stepped forward to the futon in a rush, prostrating herself before it. "My lady, my lady please wake up."

The woman underneath her covers moaned, blinking sharply against the light. When she turned, looking toward Nikimi, her eyes were wide and unfocused, as if she couldn't really see. She opened her lips to speak, but the only word that escaped was a strangled cry for help from her mate and husband.

"…Inuyasha?"

"No, my lady, your husband is still absent on his journey with Shishi-sama."

Kagome's eyes fluttered shut once more, exhaustedly. She choked back either an emotion or simply more stomach acid before weakly gasping, "Water."

"Yes my lady," Nikimi bowed, pressing her forehead to the cold floor. Her heart pounded in her chest, her stomach twisted at the scent of sickness in the room. _Taikokajin will kill me for disobedience with her fits for sure if she doesn't get the pup…but what if the miko can't even rise out of bed? What am I to do?_

Again, out of the corner of her eye as she bowed, she noticed the small lump in the furs that moved and squeaked once, uncertainly. She knew what Taikokajin would want of her then. She'd order Nikimi to let the woman die, alone and uncared for. She'd order that Nikimi take the young pup away from the dying miko for its own good.

She rose from her bow and spoke again, more urgently, leaning closer to Kagome, "My lady, it is imperative that you rise. I will help you dress. As soon as Lady Taikokajin calls, you must be ready to answer her summons. _Please_ my lady, you _must_ rise…"

She stared at Kagome's face, at her breathing, waiting. The slow, even falls of the other woman's chest quickly revealed the worst to Nikimi. The miko was too sick to heed her or answer.

Forcing back her uncertainty, Nikimi reached hurriedly for the pup. Digging roughly, she found the child nestled comfortably over his mother's arm and side. He blinked, startled, when she found him. The small white ears atop his head tweaked and jerked once.

Nikimi glanced once again at the pup's mother, cautiously. Satisfied, yet still wholly uncomfortable, Nikimi reached in and took hold of the baby's middle, pulling on him. The baby's hands reflexively caught hold of his mother's clothing, the first, her skin, anything that would keep him where he was. He gave one short, preemptive screech, a warning call to both his mother and his attacker.

Nikimi's hands faltered. She let go of the baby, watching as he crawled back into the safety and darkness of the covers and his mother's familiar, welcoming scents. He made tiny sounds of distress that slowly grew more pained as his mother failed to respond. When the first wailing cry came, and probably the first real tears too, Nikimi's breath caught in her throat.

Kagome's eyes snapped open, she blinked confusedly. A few sluggish arm movements stilled Koinu's crying.

She didn't notice the furtive, swift movements of Nikimi's speedy exit and disappearance.

* * *

Yep...that's it guys. It's SOOO late right now that this is all I'm leaving you...feel free to review though! I answer, I promise! 


	28. Descent into Madness

**Disclaimer:** Not mine...

**A/N:** Okay I wrote most of this in a day...so as usual now I feel like it sucks. But now you see I wans't lying when I said to watch for an update ;-) well I'm busy, party tomorrow with my...(ahem!) "semi"-boyfriend, long complex story anyway...so! This chapter's title describes it fairly well. See I needed to show these plotlines...the middle one starts slow but when it takes off, it takes off. You'll see. Ack contact has been acting up all day. (sighs) OOOooo...**Potty mouth** I swear it only happens a little bit. Now I need to get going and take my bad contact out and talk to my "semi-serious-thing-boyfriend."

ENJOY! I command you to!

**

* * *

Descent into Madness**

Kagome jerked awake, her breath whistling sharply. High, keening cries reached her ears at the same moment she blinked her eyes, struggling to think and gain awareness. Instinct, more ancient than almost any other, commanded her to reach for the source of the crying sounds. Her probing fingers, thick and still numb from her heavy sleep, reached warm skin a moment later and clutched it.

The room swam slowly into her vision: spacious, dim, and furnished in a style she identified as old fashioned with screened walls and windows that allowed her to see the shadows of the people passing in the hall and the birds chattering outside. There were no lamps or lights in the room that she could tell and already her eyes felt tired just being open a few seconds, despite the low light. When she moved she felt the layer of cold sweat that was covering her body. Her muscles ached and her mind felt foggy.

If not for the crying she surely would've rolled over and fallen back into her deep, unnatural sleep—but the terrible cries were impossible for her to ignore them short of coma or death. With a weak grasp, she pulled the source of the noise—Koinu—close to her and stroked his smooth skin and fuzzy light hair and ears.

The pup's shrill cries died down slightly, becoming mere whimpers almost the moment his mother responded to him. He nuzzled close to her and reached tiny, grasping palms toward her breasts, searching for food.

Kagome sighed, feeling lethargy already settling back into her bones the moment Koinu's cries eased. Her fingers on the pup's ears and hair slowed and finally stilled when Koinu's sounds stopped. Her dreams were already fast coming to her, images of darkness, blood, sickness and fear. A monster haunted her dreams, a demon so ancient that his entire species had died out millions of years ago. She tried, instinctually, to shy away from his presence within her, but the beast held onto some part of her soul that she couldn't reach, and sent dark tendrils of his spirit to act as a poison that spread through the whole of her, mind and body alike.

She might've slipped away into the monster's grasps again, fighting a battle that she couldn't seem to win, if not for the fact that Koinu couldn't get to her milk. Frustrated, the pup started to whimper again briefly when pawing futilely at layers of clothing failed to offer him a reward. When Kagome didn't respond to him immediately, Koinu advanced to all-out crying again.

As his shrill cries hit her eardrums again, Kagome snapped awake, gasping at the air like a drowning woman. The dim light of the room seemed to sear her retinas like a hot brand. She winced and struggled to adjust again, but Koinu's cries wouldn't wait. Struggling through the furs, Kagome pulled Koinu closer to her again and took a good look at him, trying to force her mind to clear of the perpetual fog it seemed to be in.

Koinu sat on her stomach, his new tears mingling with the still wet old tears from his first cry. This time when his mother stroked his ears and his hair the crying went on unabated. The pup reached for her face with his tiny, clawed hands. He patted her neck, her chin and lips before falling forward against the crook of her shoulder. His tears against her skin were warm—almost hot.

For the first time since the strange illness had reasserted itself onto her, full awareness and memory smashed into Kagome. She realized that the child lying against her was her baby, her son. His tiny white ears moved against her chin, acting as a quiet reminder of all that had happened to her over the years: the well, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kilala, Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai. Koinu's tears were suddenly a thousand times more painful to her.

Carefully cradling Koinu to her, with an effort, Kagome pushed herself up into a sitting position and fumbled with her clothing, trying to nurse the pup. How long had she been asleep? What was wrong with her? Her memories of exactly where she was and how she'd come to be there were foggy, thought she struggled to regain them. Something dark within her mind repelled every attempt she made to think about it.

As Koinu started to nurse, Kagome realized with a jolt that she was hungry and thirsty. The question came again to her: how long? But she couldn't tell and couldn't remember at all. Through blurred vision she saw that there was a ceramic bowl of water beside the bed that had mostly spilled out onto the matted floor, but aside from that there was not sign of any care.

Dimly she recalled the castle, a female dog demon who called Inuyasha kin. I'm a hostage…the image of the blue-black hair of the tall, young demon lord that called himself the heir to…wherever she was…returned to her. He'd left with Inuyasha as assurance that she wouldn't be harmed.

_But it looks like they aren't exactly doing the best job._ The spilled bowl drew her attention again and she wondered, idly, if it was what had made her sick.

_Yes, this is all a trap, Kagome._

She stiffened, looking around once only to wheeze with pain as the sharp motion kinked her neck muscles. There was no one nearby, but the voice, clear as a bell, continued unabated.

_You were meant to think that Inuyasha is working for your best interests, but it is a lie, a trap for you, poor innocent and trusting human to fall into. Didn't you see it? He left you here for the demon woman, the one with the pink eyes. You know he doesn't think you're a strong enough mate…_

Kagome trembled against her will and clutched Koinu closer to her chest. The pup, troubled by his mother's actions, stopped nursing and whimpered worriedly. Big blue baby eyes gawked at her innocently, but Kagome didn't notice. She was preoccupied with scouring the room with her eyes, looking frantically for the source of the voice and at once praying that it wasn't coming from inside her.

"That's not true!" her voice squeaked, unaccustomed to use lately.

_Don't lie to yourself, Kagome. You know Inuyasha would never willingly leave you alone, you or especially the child, not unless he had stopped caring. You remember what that was like, don't you? When the hanyou ran out on you? Surely you remember competing with Kikyo?_

She closed her eyes and bit back the old pain that rose within her at the sound of her previous incarnation's name. "Things were different back then," she whispered into the dim light and silence of the room around her, "Kikyo and the demon woman are completely different from each other. Inuyasha hated the demon woman, and they're related—and I've always been strong enough for him."

_He calls you weak all the time because he knows what you are, nothing but a frail, weak and worthless human. That's why he let you think that he was related to this demon woman and then he ran away with her. He knows you're too stupid to doubt him!_

"No! That's not true at all!" Kagome jerked her head around again, straining to see into the shadows. She thought she heard footsteps around her, but her eyes showed nothing. "What are you? What are you doing to me?"

_I am only telling you the truth, human. You were nothing but a practice bitch to that filthy hanyou. You should've known better._

"Get out of my head!" Kagome stumbled, falling forward. She clasped her hands over her ears and fought the push of tears behind her eyes. Koinu screamed where he was trapped underneath her, dazed and confused by his mother's raging turn of emotions.

_You're too weak, little human bitch. You'll never be rid of me until you submit yourself to me, until you accept the truth of what I'm telling you…_

She shook her head, "No, no." with one hand she grabbed up Koinu again and curled up tightly in a fetal position. She closed her eyes tightly against the world. "Please hurry Inuyasha…"

Laughter resounded through her skull. _He's never going to come for you!_

* * *

"The cropland is completely decimated in the Isei province. It is not possible for my resources to be used to fuel the wars in your province, Arasoizuki." Nishiyori sat back on his haunches, smug and secure in his bargaining position. He was senior in age to all of the Middle Land's rulers, even to its central leader, Lady Taikokajin. His blue-black hair was streaked with a deep, coarse gray, but his eyes, olive green in color, remained as sharp as ever—almost as sharp as his mind. 

The younger lords around him were stiff with formality, a response bred into them only as a matter of forced respect and diplomacy. Nishiyori was old enough to remember a time when the inuyoukai rulers fought one another to the death over simple administrative decisions. In some ways he preferred the older, barbaric tradition because it finished things quicker and left no slowly smoldering angers amidst the group. Now they were forced to listen to him deny their requests for aid when all of them knew that his lands in the Isei province, had been the most successful for several years now.

They looked toward Taikokajin, who sat on a raised platform at the front of the room, serene and silent, as if she were nothing more than someone's wife or mistress when in actuality she was their ruler. Nishiyori smothered the smirk he felt growing on his face. As usual, Taikokajin had ignored the subtleties of their meeting and was saying nothing to call Nishiyori on his bluff.

Arasoizuki threw Sasugainu, Taikokajin's younger brother, a look of desperation. Only Sasugainu had any bond with Taikokajin, only Sasugainu truly dared to approach the problem.

With a sigh Sasugainu shook his head at Nishiyori. "Perhaps we might deliberate on this matter further another time?"

"Certainly, but it will change nothing, Sasugainu."

"We'll see, but for now I vote we move onto less dire and serious matters—such as Lord Arasoizuki's upcoming marriage." Sasugainu turned to face his older sister who sat, distant, lost in her thoughts and delusions on her high, monarch's platform. "Lord Arasoizuki has brought his proposed mate with him so that she may be approved and they may consummate their bond and produce the Itou province's much-needed heirs."

Taikokajin's eyes snapped up on the last word. "What about heirs, brother?"

"Arasoizuki has brought his intended mate with him for your—"

"Why are you wasting my time with such dribble?" Taikokajin snapped abruptly, her pink eyes glittering with annoyance.

Her brother bowed low, hiding his surprise with the swift movement. "My lady…" Nishiyori and Arasoizuki forced their faces to remain stony and unaffected by the outburst. It was tradition for the central ruler to give a blessing on any new pairing that was destined to create heirs. Taikokajin, however, didn't seem to care.

Arasoizuki lowered his eyes to the matting on the floor between himself and Sasugainu, shifting uneasily. "Do you approve of the bloodlines, Lady Taikokajin?"

"Well who is she? Why isn't she here?" there was a rustle of thick pleated fabric as Taikokajin pushed herself to her feet and stared down at the male rulers who were still calmly seated below her. "I can't approve her bloodline Arasoizuki if I don't know whose daughter she is!"

Nishiyori snorted, his face twisted in a brief sneer. "Why would my lady Taikokajin care anything about bloodlines?" the old leader's eyes slid over in Taikokajin's direction, glinting dangerously.

Everyone in the room stood still as glass, frozen with shock. Nishiyori, it was true, had reason to be upset with Taikokajin, but he had never before acted on such feelings. Through marriage Nishiyori was actually Taikokajin's uncle, he was also closely related to Taikokajin's now deceased husband and mate, Haiseishoku. He despised Taikokajin's rule over the Middle Lands as an abomination of justice. The proper ruler _should_ have been Sasugainu, Taikokajin's younger brother, but Nishiyori had aspirations of his own that didn't include either of the siblings.

Under normal circumstances Nishiyori would've respected Taikokajin and never spoken out against her. To speak out and challenge one's leader was frowned upon, and it could prompt Arasoizuki and Sasugainu to turn on him for disloyalty. Nishiyori was a patient, conniving leader—he could wait and bide his time for the right moment to strike, no matter what he was really feeling.

Even when Haiseishoku had died under such suspicious circumstances, Nishiyori had never openly confronted Taikokajin about it because she still held power and favor in the Middle Lands. But as time had passed she'd begun to deteriorate and Nishiyori had grown steadily bolder. It appeared now that his time to challenge her authority—perhaps in Haiseishoku's name—had arrived.

Taikokajin stiffened, her jaw set hard. A muscle twitched in her forehead directly above her nose briefly before she stilled it. "What is this, Nishiyori?" she kept her voice calm and cold.

"I was merely asking," he bowed slightly to her but didn't bother to hide his slight sneer, "Why does Lady Taikokajin, who took a human male as her second mate and replacement to the great demon Haiseishoku, care about Arasoizuki's choice of mate and its resulting bloodlines?"

"Lord Nishi—" Arasoizuki tried, unsuccessfully, to cut the impending argument short, but his words were silenced when Nishiyori threw him one stern glare. The young demon lord looked quickly away, pretending to be uninterested, but in his lap his hands tensed up into fists with his frustration and embarrassment.

"Why should our lady, who mothered a filthy hanyou as her second-born, care in the slightest about proud young Arasoizuki's bloodlines?" Nishiyori narrowed his olive-green eyes on Taikokajin's flushed, stiff form, "Or perhaps you are just interested in meeting his mate to make plans for killing her, just as you killed your own mate? Tell me, dear little niece, what does Haiseishoku's spirit say to you in your dreams? I know what he says in mine…"

"Silence!" Taikokajin spat. Her face was pale, her pink eyes wide. She held a minor resemblance to a stunned rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

Nishiyori smirked openly at her while across from him the two younger demon lords shifted uneasily and refused to look at either of the arguing leaders. Finally Sasugainu cleared his throat and spoke out hesitantly, "Where is Shimofuri, sister?"

Taikokajin shifted her stance slightly to face her brother, but her eyes never left Nishiyori's face. "You will address me as Lady Taikokajin, Sasugainu."

Sasugainu bowed once, mumbling his apologies. "Lady Taikokajin, where is Shimofuri?"

At the mention of her son a second time, Taikokajin finally tore her gaze away from Nishiyori. "My son is…" her voice died and her eyes became misty and unfocused, as if she were suddenly caught up and reliving her memories. The silence in the room pressed around the demon lords and all but Nishiyori moved uneasily at it.

At last Taikokajin took a sharp breath inwards and suddenly sank to her knees again, covering her face with her hands. The scent of salt from her tears easily reached the three demon lords a short distance away. Sasugainu's face burned red abruptly as he fought with the inner instinct of the inuyoukai to protect and comfort his kin by attacking the one he perceived as having hurt her—Nishiyori. Despite his efforts a growl rose in his throat and he turned a glare on Nishiyori.

"You've driven her mad!"

Nishiyori snorted arrogantly. "I think she did that on her own, little nephew." He turned his nose up, looking down on Sasugainu as if he were no more than a pup.

"You old…" Sasugainu bit his own tongue, silencing himself. Nishiyori's smirk was enough to assure him that his urge to protect Taikokajin would be used against him, to make him seen as unsteady and biased. It would be easy for Nishiyori to use that against him and make him appear incompetent. Then the old dog could challenge both Taikokajin and Sasugainu together, effectively killing two birds with one shot.

"We should leave…" Arasoizuki began, uncertainly, but from her platform Taikokajin seemed to spring to attention.

"No!" she shouted, rising to her feet again. One of her human maids, Nikimi, scurried away from the demon woman with a frightened expression on her face at the sudden turnaround her mistress had made. "I have a proposal for you all to consider, and I will make it worth your while."

"What is this nonsense?" Nishiyori grumbled, scowling. "You've gone mad! I—"

"I _have not_ gone mad." Taikokajin raged, breathing hard, "But I am aggrieved."

Slowly Taikokajin moved down from her platform, appearing stiff and as regal as her tear-smeared makeup would allow. "I have sent Shimofuri out to inspect the lands and control the lesser youkai…but I have received word recently that he has been taken hostage."

Nishiyori scoffed sharply. "That is impossible."

"You dare doubt me?" Taikokajin breathed, pinning her pink gaze on him.

"Shimofuri is Haiseishoku's son." Nishiyori narrowed his eyes on Taikokajin when she made a face of something close to disgust, "He is far superior to any lesser demons or humans that would try to threaten or ransom him. Why are you lying to us, niece?" he sneered.

Sasugainu was also scowling, not with disdain but with confusion. "Sister—"

"You all will call me Lady Taikokajin!" the demon woman nearly shook with outrage. Her gaze flicked between the three demon lords, waiting to see if any of them would challenge her. None of them did, so she relaxed slightly and pressed on with her lie.

"It was not a lesser demon or any samurai that took my son from me." She let her voice quaver slightly, a mother's worry and fear, "It was a son of Inutaisho—"

Nishiyori laughed, "Lord Sesshomaru? What has he done to inspire your wrath, Taikokajin? Why are you making up lies about our cousin?"

"If you will not hear me out," Taikokajin hissed through clenched jaws, "Then leave."

"Si—Lady Taikokajin," Sasugainu began, mumbling haltingly, "The son of Inutaisho you are speaking of—"

"Silence, little brother!" Taikokajin snapped. She started pacing, avoiding looking at any of the demon leaders directly. Arasoizuki and Sasugainu scowled confusedly while Nishiyori tried to hide his disgusted sneer. Sasugainu alone knew that his sister really was lying, in a roundabout way. Shimofuri was with a son of Inutaisho, Inuyasha. But he'd assumed that things had taken care of themselves by now. Was it possible that the Inuyasha character was still alive and really holding the young Shimofuri hostage?

"You all know of the tales of a hanyou called Inuyasha, do you not?" Taikokajin demanded a moment later, still pacing.

"There is no such hanyou. Surely it was an inuyoukai from the mainland instead." Nishiyori watched Taikokajin's movements around the room with suspicious olive-green eyes. "Are you trying to justify your second-born as somehow better than Haisheishoku's son, Taikokajin? You should know by now your lies—"

"It is not a lie! The hanyou Inuyasha is not a myth; he is in fact the second-born pup of Inutaisho's line. This information was given to me from Sesshomaru himself. This hanyou has taken Shimofuri from me!"

"This is ridiculous!" Nishiyori rose to his feet, his face was twisted with disgust that he didn't bother trying to hide as he bowed briefly toward Taikokajin. "I have had enough of your insanity, niece. I will take my leave of you for good."

There was silence in the room as Nishiyori walked out. Only the clattering sound of the door rolling shut behind him disturbed the remaining three demons inside the room.

"He is a traitor!" Taikokajin blurted a moment later. Both her brother and Arasoizuki flinched at her outburst. "He would leave Shimofuri to die at the claws of this monstrous hanyou! He has taken Shimofuri—we must stop him! Arasoizuki, there has been fighting and wars in your province," a feverish look awakened in Taikokajin's eyes as she spoke. Her pacing stopped and she moved to kneel in Nishiyori's abandoned spot.

Arasoizuki blinked at the breach in conduct and scooted away from Taikokajin slightly as she continued speaking rapidly at him, laying out a bizarre plan.

"If you use a few of your armies with mine and Sasugainu's to stop the hanyou as he enters our borders again out of the Western Lands, Arasoizuki, then I will fund your wars _indefinitely._ I will provide food for your province. I will send Shimofuri with my finest warriors to destroy the samurai and lesser demons that have troubled you. Your younger brother, the one that causes you so much trouble—Yabureru—I will give him Tsukiyume to marry for an alliance. I—"

"Taikokajin!" Arasoizuki finally interrupted her, at last stopping the flow of frenzied words from her mouth, "I will not agree to send my armies with yours to stop this hanyou you speak of. We have seen no evidence that he has Shimofuri with him. And why would he do it? It would be suicide for him to enrage the clan like this…"

Taikokajin's eyes flew wildly to Sasugainu. "You know, brother. You know that the hanyou took my son from me!"

Sasugainu clenched his jaw tightly and looked between his crazy sister in Nishiyori's old seat and the confused Arasoizuki. It would fall on him to either go with his sister's strange convoluted plan or discredit her as insane, which was how she appeared more and more. He sighed, heavily and found his inner composure carefully, keeping his face stony.

"What she says could be true, Arasoizuki…"

"Could be true!" Taikokajin hissed viciously at her brother, leaning toward him menacingly, "You know it is!"

"…but though the hanyou may have Shimofuri now I believe that my sister sent her son with him. And it is actually she who has trespassed against the hanyou by keeping his mate and pup against their will…"

"Traitor!" Taikokajin snarled, lunging for Sasugainu's throat. The younger demon evaded her, jumping to his feet gracefully without even breaking a sweat. Half-sprawled on the floor and stumbling in her rage, Taikokajin spluttered up at him as she struggled to rise. "You would let Shimofuri—your kin!—die at that hanyou's claws? His spirit will haunt you like—"

"Like Haiseishoku's spirit haunts you, Taikokajin?" Arasoizuki grumbled, scowling. He too had risen from his sitting position and had taken a spot beside Sasugainu.

"Why you little bastard! I will send my armies to destroy your province for this insolence!"

Arasoizuki shook his head and turned his back on her, saying over his shoulder, "Your sister has gone mad, Sasugainu. I offer my sincerest apologies." He strode confidently from the room, ignoring Taikokajin's cursing behind him.

Alone with his crazed sister, Sasugainu found that he couldn't look at her, couldn't bring himself to fully hear her crazy mutterings. She still wore her proud, beautiful face, but it was twisted and smeared with her makeup. Her hair, white like snow, had fallen askew of her face. Her pink eyes seemed almost alight with her inner, crazed fire. She still looked like their father; carrying many of the same features but in feminine form, but seeing her in such a way shamed him and made him sick.

"I am sorry for this, sister." He murmured, staring at the door, longing to escape to his sane mate and the outside world with its clean, clear air. "I will see to protecting you from Nishiyori—and I promise I will find Shimofuri for you." _Then he can take your place…_

Sasugainu hurried, with as much dignity as he could muster, from the room.

* * *

"We must pass word on to Mother through Sesshomaru." Shimofuri spoke toward Inuyasha's backsides as he tied his sword, Ribikou, back onto his belt. 

At his side Tsukiyume stared with a solemn expression at the ground, unspeaking. There was a wrinkle at the top of her nose, the only sign that she wasn't actually a statue—it was an expression she wore because the air stank of the blood and deaths of many, many hanyous like herself. Earlier Inuyasha would've worn the same expression too, but now he had far more pressing concerns on his mind. The hanyou stood near the path that had led him and Shimofuri into Garou's killing ground in the first place, his body stiff and his ears pressed firmly down into his fair hair.

It was the look of one that has just learned of the death of a loved one.

"No delays." He half-grunted once, "We head back immediately."

"It won't take long, Lord Inuyasha." A little sucking-up to his renowned hanyou cousin never hurt anyone, Shimofuri thought, "Lord Sesshomaru is likely still in the area."

"Then you do it, I'm not waiting." Before he'd even finished speaking, Inuyasha had started to walk off. The tenseness in his gait was a sign that in only a second or so he would be leaping and bounding away as fast as he could go.

"Wait!" Tsukiyume's high voice made both Shimofuri and Inuyasha pause, though the hanyou refused to turn back.

Tsukiyume walked toward Inuyasha's red robed backsides a little unsteadily, here bare feet shifting and crunching the sand beneath her feet.

"Little sister?" Shimofuri asked, sounding openly concerned. His deep blue eyes followed her progress carefully.

"Lord Inuyasha." The hanyou girl ignored her older brother's voice and instead bowed low on the ground behind Inuyasha. "I must thank you for coming with my brother to save me, and apologize for our mother's cruelty."

"Tsuki—" Shimofuri started once, sounding alarmed, but his younger sister continued unabated.

"You must know that our mother has your mate and your pup in her possession—"

Shimofuri stammered as her heard his sister's words, "How do you…" but when he looked toward Inuyasha and spotted the his cousin's golden-eyed glare he silenced himself sharply.

"—to make sure they are safe, may I suggest that you send Shishi-sama ahead to speak with our mother in your stead?"

Inuyasha's ears turned backward, a sure sign that he wasn't all-too agreeable to Tsukiyume's suggestion. Slowly he turned round to face both the prostrated hanyou girl and the startled—but desperately trying to hide such a reaction—young demon lord. He stared for a long moment at Tsukiyume's crouched form, contemplating her. Then, slowly, his gaze turned toward Shimofuri instead. The young demon lord steadied himself, meeting the hanyou's gaze directly, trying to appear dignified despite his bafflement.

"No offence Tsuki," he rumbled after a moment, still not taking his eyes off Shimofuri, "But how do I know your brother won't screw me over with your mother."

"I will travel back with you, while Shishi-sama runs ahead to stop our mother and protect your mate and your pup. My presence with you will be assurance to both my brother's loyalty and to mother's. You will have my life as forfeit." She bowed lower still to the earth and pressed her forehead to the dirt.

"I don't need either of you to help me—" Inuyasha's blustering was cut off by Tsuki's small voice again.

"I was not saying you did, Lord Inuyasha. Only that it would be of great help in saving your mate and son. Shimofuri is the fastest of any of us, he alone can change into his true form."

The hanyou's golden eyes narrowed suspiciously. He looked between Shimofuri's confusion and Tsukiyume's careful prostration. "I can't trust you—how the hell do you know so much about me? You were that fucking thing's hostage for a month!"

"I am given to spiritual powers, as my father was." Tsukiyume murmured, but her confidence in the face of Inuyasha's anger was beginning to waver. "That was how I was able to save you from the demon's black magic curse during the battle."

Inuyasha shifted his stance once, apparently uncertain. At last he lifted his gaze to Shimofuri again and asked, "Would you leave Ribikou with me again?"

The young demon lord bowed his head slightly and fumbled a bit with the sword at his waist. "Yes…"

"Then give it to me and go stop that crazy bitch mother of yours before I kill her."

* * *


	29. Taikokajin's Downfall

**A/N:** Sorry it took me so long to get this out. I've been distracted with college, boys, life, my new job, you know, all that good stuff. I shan't waste your time here...I do use some harsh language here, so **Be Warned.** Umm...I feel like treating Kagome like I did in this chapter was a sin, but...well...I dunno, if I really sucked you guys can tell me to do it again.

**Disclaimer: **Nope, I do not own him. **

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**WOAWO Review:** (A new feature I had suggested to me recently, thank you whoever you are, it's a really good idea since I'm not updating weekly like I was in high school.) **Shimofuri**_is running home to stop his mother from hurting Kagome because he is the fastest. Both his sword and his sister, **Tsukiyume** are with **Inuyasha** to act as collateral to make sure Shimofuri really goes through with it. **Taikokajin** has failed to rule her kingdom properly, leading to dissent in the **last chapter** by **Nishiyori** Shimofuri's great uncle. **Inuyasha **was warned by the bad guy, **Garou,** that he would use **Kagome **to kill him and still get **Koinu,** even after he's been killed by Tsukiyume. **Kagome** has been trying to deal with her captivity and keep Koinu safe while she is also severely weakened. Now **Taikokajin** is coming to claim Koinu and kill her. **Sasugainu** (Taikokajin's younger brother, Shimofuri's uncle) is out searching for Shimofuri to make him replace Taikokajin as the ruler or the **MiddleLands.**_

Any Qs contact me. Leave a review. Love ya, gotta go to bed. Worktomorrow.

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**Taikokajin's Downfall**

The snow stung Shimofuri's nose, hard sleety stuff, dribbling out of a halfway sunny sky. Spring was on its way, or so the calendar would say, but Shimofuri's nose told him otherwise. The pellet snow came down in fickle gusts, at one moment whiting out the forest around him and the next minute vanishing almost completely.

In spite of the snow coming down, clumping up in his paws and obscuring his view of the trail ahead, Shimofuri was making excellent time—he'd already crossed into the Middle Lands. Sesshomaru's scent had long since vanished; the mountainous terrain of the Western Lands had also passed away, falling into the gentler, hilly land of his birth.

He was a blue-black streak of movement, rushing through the white wilderness. Old crusted snow and new stuff freshly fallen crunched and were kicked high into the air around him. He stopped along certain points, sniffing for the sentry places and the small spots where humans might rest alongside the road.

He'd entered the Middle Lands in the western province of Isei, which was controlled by his mother's uncle, Nishiyori. Taikokajin had never much liked Nishiyori—probably because he was closely related to her deceased mate Haiseishoku—so she'd generally ordered Shimofuri to remain hidden whenever he passed on missions through the Isei province. Instead she'd told him to take a longer route, circling around from the north usually, where his uncle Sasugainu ruled to Hokubo province.

There was no time now for stealth or for taking the route his mother had always advised. Shimofuri plowed through the Isei province without thought of anything but speed. But early on the morning after he'd set out from Inuyasha and Tsukiyume, a few of Nishiyori's patrols caught wind of him. Shimofuri had heard them howling in their dog forms, summoning him. Shimofuri might've ignored them, might've outrun them, but at the same time not answering them was an insult to Nishiyori. So he returned their summoning song. Their voices sounded like the wolves' baying at the moon, but somehow eerier, higher pitch, more melancholy.

At noon Shimofuri waited for them in a clearing. The sunlight had come out, though pellets of snow still drifted down with the slight wind. He shook them out of his fur irritably and paced impatiently while Nishiyori's sentries caught up to him. He prayed that Nishiyori would not detain him long.

When the sentries came they were already in their humanoid, bipedal forms. Both of them were older, their hair graying and balding. Their eyes, like Nishiyori's, were olive-green. They were lesser inuyoukai who probably were somehow distant kin of Nishiyori's. So, like human samurai soldiers, they served their lord, Lord Nishiyori, like little minions.

They bowed swiftly when they saw him, wetting their knees and their simple servant's robes in the new snow. Shimofuri lowered his head and his tall, pointed ears in a doggish salute. It was rude to greet them in his true form, he knew, but he was in too much of a hurry to bother with the shape shifting.

"You are trespassing on Lord Nishiyori's lands." One of them said, gruffly while still bowing. "We must escort you to Lord Nishiyori so that he may clear you."

Shimofuri cocked his head, confusedly. His great uncle had deemed his young nephew's presence a matter of trespassing? Something dark and sinister rippled through Shimofuri's body. He shifted uncertainly on his paws and then reached within himself, pulling on his humanoid form like casting aside a heavy winter coat with the coming of some warm sunlight. In a moment he faced the two sentries as a humanoid shrouded in his usual rich blue robes.

"Why is my uncle so offended by my presence in his province? I am the heir of the Middle Lands…" he stared at them blandly, though the confusion and anxiety he felt were betrayed by his voice.

"You must come with us, Shimofuri." The second sentry spoke, his voice sounding deeper, smoother, and somehow more powerful. His informal address to the heir of the Middle Lands made Shimofuri's skin prickle ominously.

"I will not. I am in haste. Tell Lord Nishiyori that if he desires it I will make my amends with him at a later date of his choosing." He turned on his heel, facing the forest but still keenly listening to the sentries behind him.

"You must come with us now, Shimofuri. Lord Nishiyori must see you." nothing more was said, but Shimofuri understood their unvoiced meaning. If Shimofuri walked away from them and ignored his uncle's request the Middle Lands would likely become entrapped in civil war because he had insulted his uncle's honor. But at the same time Shimofuri knew that if he went with the sentries not only would Taikokajin likely kill Inuyasha's human mate, but Nishiyori would probably imprison him.

Something about it all felt horribly wrong.

There was a snarl behind him and Shimofuri's heart took off, pounding viciously. The sentries had read him correctly and realized that he wouldn't come with them without a fight. Shimofuri reached within himself again, calling out his true form. In a second he was the great dog again, a blue-black streak rushing through the white snow and the trees. The sentries ran behind him, smaller in size and colored light gray. Shimofuri wasn't by any means afraid of them. They were much smaller than him, less powerful. They were also older and relatively mindless, serving their lord without true passion.

He could outrun them easily and pay the consequences to his insulted uncle's honor later, when his task was at last completed.

Shimofuri ran for the southern province where his mother waited.

* * *

"My lady," Nikimi bowed at Taikokajin's doorway, her forehead pressed to the floorboards. "I am at your service."

"Are you, little bitch? Are you really?" came a deep, snarling voice from inside the darkened room. The windows were screened, only a few streaks of gray light managed to slip inside. On the bed the blankets, luxurious silks and animal furs alike, were strewn crazily, as if Taikokajin had been wrestling with herself.

"My lady…" Nikimi didn't lift her face from the floor. Her voice trembled. "What can I do to prove—"

There was a hissing sound and then a harsh clattering sound. A clawed hand snatched angrily at the screened windows, flinging one of them open. Sunlight spilled into the room along with a chilly early spring wind. Nikimi shivered on the floorboards, waiting.

"Get that pup from that miko. Then I want you to kill her. Poison the miko's food. Stab her in her sleep. I don't care how you do it—you stupid, worthless little bitch—but I want it done now. And the pup must be unharmed, do you understand me?"

Nikimi's shaking increased. "But my lady—"

"Silence! That miko has been stinking up that guest room for weeks. I'm sick of her. Do you smell that on the wind, little bitch?"

"What is it, my lady…" Nikimi's voice quavered.

"Spring, you twit! It's spring! The time of new beginnings and clean…cleaning. New beginnings. A clean, new world." Taikokajin's voice died away into a croaking whisper.

The silence dragged out until Nikimi asked, "My lady…?"

"What is it!"

Nikimi cringed; she didn't dare lift her face or her eyes. "What about Lord Inuyasha?"

"He will be dead!" Taikokajin raged, "My brother, yes, my brother, Sasugainu, he told me he would do it for me. He isn't a traitor. He is family. Yes, family…"

Nikimi held her breath. She knew Sasugainu had left the castle to find Shimofuri and return him home, he hadn't said anything about dealing with their cousin Inuyasha. Her fingernails twitched on the floorboards, the only sign aside from her shivering, that she was slowly losing her nerve. The delicate walls holding up her sanity were crumbling; the rigid social code she'd been raised to follow from birth was clashing with her desire to survive.

Taikokajin was crazy. The miko was crazy. The baby was the only innocent being perhaps in the whole of the castle. She felt sickened at her choices. _If only Shimofuri were here_… she closed her eyes tightly, _Shishi-sama was sane. He would know how to control her._

"Why are you still here?" Taikokajin's voice snarled, startling Nikimi into flinching.

"My lady, I—"

"You're going to betray me too!" despite the fury Nikimi could feel in her mistress's voice, it was said in a whisper. Nikimi's heartbeat resounded loudly in her own ears then, feeling like the pounding of a drum before a sacrifice.

"No my lady, I'm not, but this lowly servant of yours wishes to advise you…"

"If you won't do it," Taikokajin barked, "Then I will!" There were more clattering sounds from inside the room, a heavy tread of footsteps. Nikimi looked up just in time to see her mistress's sandaled feet coming at her. A second later the world was spinning, her head throbbing. To her shame tears were leaking out of her eyes. Dimly, she heard Taikokajin's footsteps retreating down the hallway.

Whimpering, Nikimi pulled herself back out of Taikokajin's doorway and peeked around the corner into the hall. The demon woman was wearing a long, flowing dove-gray robe. It trailed behind her like a curtain. Long, flowing white hair, completely uncombed and unrestrained, cascaded like ice down her back.

Taikokajin reached the end of the corridor where a sentry, a human guard in armor, stood his post. His face was expressionless, but his eyes flicked to Taikokajin a few times, warily. He stood stiff and at a attention when Taikokajin came to him and stopped. Taikokajin turned slightly and pointed one clawed finger at Nikimi's pathetic form.

"Do you see that little bitch there?"

The sentry dipped his head once in the affirmative, but didn't look at Nikimi directly.

Helplessly, Nikimi started to shake. Her head ached. She felt something warm trickle out of her nose, when her fingers came back from investigating it they were bright red with her blood. Taikokajin had dealt her a hard blow.

"I want her executed." Taikokajin was saying, "Right now. Right in front of my room. And when I get back the mess had better be cleaned up—or _you_ will be the next to die." she pointed a finger at him almost accusingly. "Do you understand me, human?"

"Yes, Lady Taikokajin." He barked out his answer, stiffly, and bowed from the waist up.

Taikokajin threw Nikimi a last sneer and then vanished around the corner. Nikimi had a moment to wonder why Taikokajin hadn't slaughtered her herself—she was wearing a sword, tied with a silk sash around her narrow hips. But those thoughts were wiped away as the sentry stepped forward hurriedly.

Nikimi tried to crawl away, tried to form words. Her feet stumbled; she choked a little on the blood in her nose and mouth. It seemed impossible to think or move well at all. "Please…"

The sentry stopped several feet away from her and looked up and down the corridor swiftly. He didn't draw the sword at his waist. "I don't know who you are, woman, or what you did…"

Nikimi swallowed hard and fell into a sloppy bow, hoping for mercy but at once accepting her fate.

"…but go, leave now. Don't come back unless…"

She peeked at his feet, at the armor protecting his shins.

"Unless our lady should suddenly lose her…" he cleared his throat cutting himself off, "Just go, go now!"

Biting her lip firmly, Nikimi nodded, though it hurt her head, and pushed herself away from the sentry. She stumbled to her feet, leaning heavily on the wall for support. Her whole life she'd served one demon lord or another, her entire family devoted service. It was a better life than struggling in a village, constantly under attack by samurai lords or by lesser demon minions…

When she passed out of the gates of Taikokajin's castle she was aching and miserable, but she was alive, and for that at least, she was grateful…

* * *

Taikokajin waited outside the guest room, her thin, seemingly fragile fingers poised to grab the door and slide it open. It would be quick work, she promised herself. The miko woman was hungry and sickened. The monster that had stolen Tsukiyume was powerful, it had retaken her soul. She could feel its dark magic just beyond the thin screened walls. If she concentrated enough, she could almost smell it.

It was cruel of her to leave the pup in that kind of environment any longer. She could smell the child too, young, healthy, alive. He smelled like a baby, full of milk, sleep, and innocence.

She closed her eyes, letting the baby smell wash over her, giving her courage to face the miko's power. It'd been years since she'd smelled anything so beautiful. She missed it, craved it. To hold a helpless creature in her arms, and see that it worshipped her, it had no secret agenda, no other thoughts than receiving her love and attention.

When Tsukiyume's father, the monk, had died and left her cursed, Taikokajin's body rejected every following pregnancy. Each of her unborn pups—bastard children she'd sired with weaker dog demons and other humans—had died within her. It had become an obsession for so many years once Tsukiyume and Shimofuri had grown too large for her to hold. She bedded any male she could just to gain his seed, to pray and beg the fates for a new pup, a new child. But each one drowned in blood. It was her secret, her desperation, her madness. Every time she tried she hid it from her first two pups, usually sending them away on missions or to visit relatives…

Or as she had just recently sent Shimofuri away with Tsukiyume to allow them to visit Kokoro's gravesite…something she cursed herself for now.

Despite the fact that she knew Shimofuri had been intensely fond of the old monk, and would've visited the gravesite on many other occasions willingly, Taikokajin usually forbade it. Tsukiyume, having never really known her own father, visited him more out of reverence. Taikokajin wouldn't have let either of her children visit his grave under normal circumstances—except that she had her secret to keep. If her children were in the palace when she tried so futilely to have another pup, they'd pick up the scent changes. They would worry. They would ask questions.

So it was that she always found pretense to send them away. That was how the monster Garou had gotten a hold of her daughter, that was what had started all of her problems…

After seeing the miko's abilities, killing her maids and guards left and right when she'd tried to take the pup by force, Taikokajin had briefly entertained the thought of using the miko to destroy the curse on her. For a time, she had hoped. But Nikimi had brought news of the miko's deterioration, her fall back into delirium and sickness. That had convinced her more than anything else that the miko was a lost cause, as was the situation using collateral against her cousin, the famed Inuyasha. He would lose his mate, the human bitch, no matter what. The child could be saved. And if Taikokajin dealt with everything swiftly, and if her brother helped, than maybe she might be able to retrieve Shimofuri from death at the enraged hanyou's claws. She doubted that Tsukiyume, the younger and weaker or her children, would survive her run in with the monster Garou.

She could mourn Tsukiyume's loss later, and seek another spiritually gifted monk or priestess to break the spell keeping her from bearing more pups of her own. In the meantime she could quench her thirst for another pup easily by ridding Koinu of his mother. Soon her hanyou cousin's pup would be an orphan on both sides anyway. He needed her, just as she needed him.

Taikokajin slipped her fingers into the tiny crevice between the sliding door and the wall, poised to open it and finish things for good with the pesky miko mother. As the door clattered open she considered new names for the pup, the things she would teach it. She would never tell it of its father. He would have to never know his odd ancestry—it would be troublesome for her to cover up, but well worth it.

She clasped the hilt of her sword and pushed past the door, knocking it off its track completely, sending the thing askew. "Miko." She muttered, drawing the blade with a hiss, "It's time."

The futon and the bundle of soiled, dirtied furs that the miko had been sleeping on for days was flat, seemingly abandoned. Taikokajin felt a moment of confusion, and then she was blinded by the sight of the pup. He was sitting up, just off the furs, staring at her intently. His ears were lying flat, his tiny, expressive face darkened as if he were about to sob.

Taikokajin began to step forward, the sword in her clawed hands lowering immediately. "Shh…" she started to make a comforting sound, the coo of the female dog demon that she'd made while nursing Shimofuri so many years ago.

And then the pup's face wrinkled unhappily and he lowered his eyes toward the furs, as if hiding it.

The floorboards squeaked once behind Taikokajin. There was a shout, more of a scream actually, and Taikokajin realized she'd been caught in the miko's trap.

* * *

_She's out there, thinking about how she's going to tell you that Inuyasha has chosen her instead of you now. She's relishing the moment before her victory. She's going to come in here and have you killed, but not before she first tells you the horrible truth. Inuyasha doesn't want you, he won't even say goodbye. He's sent that demon bitch to come after you, little weak human, but only so that he can at last be rid of you and claim his own offspring of course._

_No,_ Kagome thought, dimly hearing her own ragged, raspy breathing, _that isn't true at all…_

_Oh? You think that perhaps that inuyoukai bitch will kill you both, eh? Both you and your little miserable whelp. It's such a shame. So many hanyous in this world, and so many of them die so young—your little bastard pup is probably the only one of his kind. I'm sure you want him to live._

"Of course I do!" she choked, holding herself with her arms and struggling to breathe. The room around her fuzzed in and out of view. Gray walls, the windows were shuttered. When had they been closed? Had she done it? Had they ever been out? Kagome wondered if she'd ever been outside of the room at all, had she ever felt the sunshine on her face? Or Inuyasha's kiss on her lips, on her body? Had it all been a dream?

_You're letting yourself slip, bitch! Wake up!_

Kagome jolted back into reality, blinking and breathing roughly. She looked around, spotting Koinu sleeping on the covers a short distance away. His little face was unhappy as he slept, probably caught up in some baby nightmare…what did babies have nightmares about? She felt her chest tighten up with grief, her eyes burned. _My poor baby…Inuyasha, where are you?_ She moved shaking hands up to rub her eyes. _What's the matter with me?_

_You're weak, that's what's wrong, bitch. Wake up. Accept me, I will fuel you. I can save your whelp. I can grant him immortality._

_There's no such thing…you're a monster_…But even as she shivered and shook, Kagome found herself listening with a twinge of curiosity. Darkness closed over her mind, constricted her guts. Her hands quaked when she reached out for Koinu. _I'd do anything to save him from her._

_Then stop waiting for that fucking hanyou you're mated to. Accept me. I can restore your health, your soul, your thoughts. I can save your whelp. He doesn't have to become hers. I can help you take revenge on all of them. The maid, the inuyoukai bitch too, they've all been poisoning your food. I can purge it from you, I can make it all better for you…Kagome…_

She knew, somewhere within her, that this voice within her was lying. It was manipulating her, using her. And yet she didn't doubt its words. It really could save her. It really could help her destroy Taikokajin. It really would restore her strength. But it was a dark force, something that clashed inherently with her purifying soul. Accepting it into her, letting it share her mind rather than mock her on the outside…what would it do to her? Could she really afford to wait any longer?

Koinu jerked in his sleep, ears pricking. Kagome looked to the wall that separated her little prison room from the hallway outside, and felt footsteps thudding through the floorboards. A second later she saw a wispy shadow passing over the wall, heading toward the doorway to her room.

Her heart thundered inside her. She reached for Koinu, but her legs twitched and cramped up painfully. Kagome's hands fell short of her baby; she bit her tongue to stop herself from whimpering or crying out. Koinu watched her with sleepy eyes as he woke up. After a moment he wrinkled up his face and whimpered, sensing her agony.

_You will die when she comes in, Kagome._ The voice within her spoke from the corner behind Koinu, past the soiled furs they'd been sleeping on for uncountable days and night, all blurred to Kagome by her illness. When Kagome looked up, passed her baby, she saw its shadow now for the first time, a large, powerful creature, gray-black. It was indistinct, like clouds crossing over a night sky, blocking out the stars as it passes. She couldn't tell where its form ended and the natural shadows of the room began.

_I can help you,_ it taunted.

_You'll save Koinu? You'll give me strength to fight her?_

The shadow moved forward slightly, Kagome thought she saw an animal-like leg extend. Against the floorboards it made no sound, left no mark, but it became very clear to her, and Kagome knew suddenly that it had five digits, five toes…

_I will give the whelp immortality. You, I will give invincibility to protect him. I will lend you my power._

She sensed the silent but in his words, a condition that she would have to fulfill later. _What will I have to do for…_

_For me,_ the voice was quiet but powerful, full of dark triumph, _you will kill Inuyasha. And you must do with the whelp what I say—there is a ritual…_

_I won't do it! I can't!_ Kagome strained, reaching forward for Koinu again. Her fingers fell short, tears prickled her vision. Koinu, seeing her distress, crawled a few inches closer, pawing at her open palms with his tiny clawed hands. Kagome grabbed hold of him, gasping as she pulled him closer to her.

The shape in the corner moved around the furs, remaining indistinct, like a puff of smoke. _You have no choice. Why bother trying to save that filthy hanyou? You're stronger than him, he thinks you're weak. He's left you for Taikokajin. He's power hungry. He wants her land. You were never enough for him. You remember the other priestess, you remember Kikyo._

Kagome whimpered, holding Koinu more desperately. She felt a small tremor pass through her body. In her peripheral vision she saw the shadow circle round the furs she was laying on. On the wall, by the door, she heard Taikokajin's claws tap on something metallic, the hilt of a sword. _I remember Kikyo…_

_He never wanted you. He'll have that pink bitch take your whelp away from you and then run you through with that sword, all because you proved him right. You were too weak to save yourself and that whelp. All because you didn't have the sense to accept my help._

_No! I am strong enough!_ She pulled Koinu up into her arms. He cooed a little, uncertainly. She used one weak arm to pull herself away from the direction of the door, off the furs.

_You have no choice, little bitch!_ The shadow beast leapt at her.

Kagome scrambled, trying to move her useless legs while at once pushing Koinu away from the potential danger. The pup gave a small sound of surprise, and then fell silent, ears flattening over his skull. His tiny body shivered and shook as he watched his mother fall and stumble flat, twitching and choking as the shadow creature closed over her, suffocating.

It took only a second, and then Kagome stilled, the blackness faded away, seemingly disappeared entirely. The Kagome it left behind breathed slowly, deeply, like an assassin. She glanced once at the pup and then, with glowing glittering black eyes, she pushed Koinu further into the corner, gently. She rose onto her feet easily, lithely, and crossed the room.

Her toes hardly touched the floorboards. She appeared almost like a ghost, as if she might weigh no more than a feather. There was no sound to reveal her swift movement, the way she flattened her body on the opposite wall from Koinu, hidden in the shadows where Taikokajin would never see her.

Koinu stared after his mother even as the door slid open and the pink-eyed demon woman stepped into the room with her shiny sword drawn. Senses passed from both his miko mother, and his hanyou father, told his simple baby's mind that there was something horribly wrong with his mother. Her scent had changed, her aura had changed. It troubled him, sent his instinctual crying response into the ready.

As Taikokajin stepped into the room and saw him, she lowered her sword, overcome with the child's traumatized expression. Even in her own insanity she could recognize the pup's distress, and it made her drop her guard. But as she made a move toward the child, Kagome sprang her trap from where she'd been hiding in the corner by the door. Pouncing more like a beast than a human, she leapt onto Taikokajin's back, screaming in a guttural language that was not her own. Her hands glowed a sickening black-purple color, and when they clamped around Taikokajin's neck, the demon woman screeched with agony.

Koinu cringed, crying immediately at the harsh sound.

Taikokajin whirled, half falling; half eluding the sudden attack, and Kagome went flying. Her body crashed against the door frame, cracking and splintering the thin wooden walls. Kagome's breathing returned almost immediately to normal, her hands continued to glow. When she used them to push herself up from the ground the floorboards underneath her palms turned black, as if withering and rotting.

Taikokajin stumbled away, her body quivering. Around her neck were two rings of black pock marks, burned deeply into her skin. She gasped and choked, as if Kagome's stranglehold had never been removed at all. Her face, already so white from simply being an albino, now looked completely bleached. Her pink eyes were wide, wild, and bloodshot.

"What have—" she choked, still stumbling drunkenly. She clawed at her neck, and in her fingers black flakes of what might have once been skin came back at her touch. She gaped at it, her mouth pulling at the air like a dying fish's.

Kagome stayed in a crouching position, close to the ground. She advanced on the demon woman slowly, her hands were held, palms out, like weapons.

Weakly, Taikokajin tried to steady her sword; she tried to steady her stance for a fight. Her sword, long and narrow, had the ability to absorb spiritual, purifying energy—but somehow, what the miko was throwing her now; it didn't quite meet that definition. To a demon the spiritual energy was toxic, yes, but this…

Horror awoke within Taikokajin. The miko's aura, it was no longer completely human.

"Abomination!" Taikokajin gasped, sneering. She lunged, slashing at the miko, but with speed that a mortal shouldn't have possessed, Kagome avoided the slash, ducking beneath it and grabbing Taikokajin's ankles.

Taikokajin screeched with pain and started to fall as her muscles burned away at Kagome's touch. She swiped with her sword as she fell once, catching Kagome in the shoulder.

Kagome rolled away, but left streaks of blood in her wake.

"You cannot win," Taikokajin snarled, "The beast you asked to help you, miko, it will consume you and the child—you are a fool…"

"You're the fool, Pinky." The voice issuing from Kagome's lips was not quite her own, it had a deeper, more masculine edge to it, but Kagome's own voice could still be heard and recognized within it. "I'll see that you lose everything you have. I won't take your life fast, the way you think you deserve. No, you're going to die slowly."

Taikokajin lifted her sword. "You are the only one that will die in here. I've had that planned all along."

She grinned, revealing elongated canine teeth; the edges seemed to fuzz in and out of existence. Her eyes glittered blackly. "What are you waiting for?"

Taikokajin stiffened, preparing to lunge forward, but Kagome clapped her hands together, closed her eyes. The purple-black energy burst forward in a spray of dark color, splattering Taikokajin.

The demon woman cried out, screaming and stumbling backward. The droplets that landed on her kimono burned through the fabric, smoking. Her cries grew more pained, higher, frantic. She patted desperately at the drops, only to come away with her hands smoking as the stuff burned into her flesh there too.

She dropped her sword. It clattered on the floorboards and rolled toward Kagome's feet. Kagome watched the demon woman writhe, dispassionately. She appeared also not to notice or hear Koinu's screaming.

At long last, when Taikokajin slumped to the ground, passing out as pain overwhelmed her, Kagome turned back toward Koinu. Her body loosened slightly, becoming heavier, more human. The ugly black glint in her eyes dissipated, fading away until it was nearly gone.

She crossed the room and scooped Koinu up into her arms carefully, shushing him. When his whimpering had quieted, Kagome got up again and turned to face the doorway. Guards and maids and others who served Taikokajin and her son, Shimofuri, were waiting there, stunned into utter silence. When Kagome took a step toward the doorway they backed hurriedly away, giving her as much room as they could.

Stone-faced, and holding Koinu tightly against her, Kagome walked through the castle hallways, out into the courtyard, and finally out the castle gates.

* * *


	30. Weakness

**Disclaimer:** No I don't own any of them, except for my own original characters.

**A/N: **I wrote this in about 8 hours. Wow. So as usual I'm going to tell you that it sucks. In the end you're the right and proper judges of that. But hey, at least I'm updating, eh? Work tomorrow, I'm tired as a dog. Party with computer games at my boyfriend's house this upcoming friday. I may be writing throughout the rest of the week, so soon you may expect another update, hopefully on _I Miss You_ so that the updates will be fair. Make sure you tell me what you think!

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WOAWO Review: Last chapter **Shimofuri** ran into some sentries sent by his great uncle **Nishiyori** who rules the Isei province. They wanted to detain him, Shimofuri refused and made a run for it. **Nikimi** was almost killed by crazy Taikokajin. She fled the castle and spread the word of **Taikokajin's madness.** **Taikokajin** tried to take **Koinu** by force, but **Garou** stepped in, taking **Kagome as a host using her desire to protect Koinu.** Kagome escaped the castle after battling Taikokajin, leaving her very ill, potentially dying. **Inuyasha** and **Tsukiyume** are traveling for **Sesshomaru** together while **Shimofuri** was supposed to stop Taikokajin from hurting Kagome.

If you have any Qs as usual, I am always here and waiting to answer when I have time. For updates on my status here, you can **always check my profile.** I do update it from time to time, usually before I update the stories. On with the tale!

**

* * *

Weakness**

Shimofuri ran through the night, reaching his mother's lands a few hours before dawn. It was nothing short of shocking to him to realize that Nishiyori's sentries hadn't stopped following him at the border. In what should have been his territory, his home turf, Shimofuri was being chased like a fugitive.

He was the _heir_ to the Middle Lands—running like a pup—but there was no other choice.

Near dawn the sentries fell behind, tiring. Shimofuri's body ached; the wind had left his lungs and the bare skin around his eyes, mouth, and nose into a biting, stinging cold. Snowflakes continued to fall during his journey. The ground was just chilly enough that the flakes stuck, coating the world like a topping of powdery white sugar. He stopped to bite into the stuff every few hours, trying to quench the burning thirst in his throat, made raw by the wind. The icy water made his mouth hurt, and it only seemed to make the pain in his throat worse.

As the sun came up, dawning dimly through ugly, gloomy clouds on the horizon, Shimofuri risked revealing his location to howl out to the sentries patrolling his mother's province, Nanka, seeking their help. His first calls received no responses. When he followed those first calls with a series of further calls, pleading help and proper escort, he was still met with silence. The entire province seemed silent as the snow falling out of the morose, somber skies.

Something was terribly wrong.

Shimofuri pushed his body to the extreme, but by midday he realized that the sentries had the upper hand. Without patrols to guard the Nanka province from Nishiyori's people, the leader could send in his spies and fresh sentries to replace those that had first tried to detain Shimofuri. Shimofuri was certain that this was just what had happened when the first sentries tired and fell behind the night before. Their calls had echoed dimly through the hills during the dawn hours, but Shimofuri had been so exhausted he'd hardly paid hem any mind. Now he was sure that they'd been coordinating a meeting, a replacement of the tired troops with fresh pursuers.

They would run Shimofuri into the ground, but he refused to give in. The castle grounds weren't far off, only a few hours. Shimofuri could make the journey, even if he was exhausted when he reached the place. If he could only stop his mother from harming Inuyasha's mate and pup son…

And then, even as Shimofuri could see the last hills between himself and his mother's castle, the howling started up behind him. The young heir of the Middle Lands crossed into a wide, open expanse of crop fields. It was abandoned and covered by a faint layer of snow, some of it new and powdery, the rest of it old and crusty. Shimofuri paused in this place, snapping up bits of the snow to cool his throat. As he chewed the stuff and swallowed it his throat convulsed, so raw and tired from his continual panting that it refused the freezing liquid.

Shimofuri choked and coughed up the water. The first spasms lead to a hacking choke that brought up stomach acids. The sour stink of it sent him staggering away, his mind reeling and his muscles quavering.

_It's just a little further. Just a little further…_

There was a loud, piercing howl from behind him. Shimofuri lifted his head, blue-gray eyes suddenly wide open. His ears were perched upright sharply for attention. The sound had come from somewhere nearby, no more than a mile or so away.

Adrenaline swamped his system. Shimofuri turned and ran like a fugitive in a prison break, like a rabbit from the wolf. He ran wildly, like a big, bushy greyhound. He leapt over the wide grooves and ditches that the human farmers used for irrigating the crops in the warmer months. Occasionally he slipped, wetting a paw or splashing his entire body into the icy, sluggish canals.

The howl came again from behind him, wavering in its high voice, but Shimofuri was sure he could pick out a triumphant, excited note in it. These were fresh sentries, likely hidden deep within his mother's lands already, lying in wait for just this moment.

Just as Shimofuri reached the center of the field, wet and panting raggedly, another cry rose up, the sound of one of the sentries pursuing him, for they were using the same call, identifying themselves as Nishiyori's servants. Shimofuri stopped running, stumbling and falling face-first into the irrigation channels mid-leap.

It was not the call that made him stop, it was _where_ the sound came from.

_It was coming from in front of him. It was blocking his path to the castle, to his mother._

Shimofuri's heart pounded wildly, he barely noticed the ice chunks floating past his legs, or the steady dribbling his bluish pelt made as the ice water trickled off him. He was doomed. The sentries had invaded his mother's land, breaching every code of conduct he could think of within the Inuyoukai clan. They were going to catch him, maybe even kill him. Inuyasha would lose his mate and his son, and as a result the enraged hanyou would execute Tsukiyume. Then he would come after Taikokajin and Shimofuri, on a wild rampage for revenge.

Shimofuri's expression hardened. His dog's eyes narrowed, his ears flattened and his tail bristled and drooped. He lowered his stance, ducking into the little valley of the canal until his chest and his chin touched the icy water. He'd fight them, however many there were, and he'd kill them if they refused to let him pass.

He'd come this far for Tsukiyume, he wasn't about to let her die now.

The sentries entered the clearing, panting their excitement. Their tongues lolled, their breath fogged in the air around their mouths like wreaths of smoke. They were warm and fresh, eager to flush out and capture the young heir of the Middle Lands like a fox hunting a rabbit. For them, mere servants and lesser youkai, to be allowed to chase down and conquer the heir of the Middle Lands, it was an honor beyond their wildest imaginings. They were ecstatic.

Two approached from behind, one male and one female, siblings—twins in fact. They were both mottled brown, looking almost like a pair of mutts. They were small demons, only about the size of Great Danes. From in front of Shimofuri there were two males, large but lithe runners. They leapt easily over the canals, noses to the ground but straining their eyes upward, searching for any sign of the young heir.

The sentries from behind would reach his hiding place first, Shimofuri thought, listening to their footsteps drawing steadily closer. The male was leading, steady and confident. He yipped under his breath, hardly able to contain his eagerness.

Shimofuri tensed, preparing to spring out and rip the male to shreds.

Suddenly the female gave a sharp, braying call and all the sentries paused. Silence descended, allowing Shimofuri to hear the gentle wind, dragging the snowflakes downward from the gloomy heavens. The water in the irrigation channel around him hissed as it passed, chugging along ever so slowly.

"Leave peasant." A woman's voice spoke now, gruffly. Shimofuri realized that the sentries had stopped and changed form, becoming bipedal. He strained his ears, trying to learn all he could and trying to think past the cold and exhaustion that plagued him. He didn't dare lift his head to look beyond the canal.

"You have no business here." The male sentry spoke now, also in a rough, tense voice. "Unless you've seen a massive beast pass through here—this very field—a blue-gray beast…"

There was another silence, a heavy, deep one, crushing like the pits of the oceans. The wind picked up howling with the voice of a banshee, perhaps announcing a late winter-early spring storm—or more likely heralding certain doom.

One of the men from in front of Shimofuri, the males blocking his route to the castle, cackled under his breath cruelly. "Stupid bitch—a mute. Humans are so useless."

His companion snorted. "They make good eating."

Shimofuri snarled silently. It was a law within the Middle Lands that Inuyoukai were supposed to be lords and rulers, guardians and masters. They were not the wild, uncontrollable demons that roamed master-less and immoral across Japan. It was true, like all youkai they were inclined to act as animals, wild and uncontrollable from time to time, but the order was explicit—humans were _not_ to be killed as wild fodder. They were _not _to be eaten. They were instead like dairy cows or crops, nurtured and cared for, watched over so that they could colonize the land and grow the crops, like slaves. Even Inuyoukai, after all, were fond of rice cakes and plums, sushi and chicken. Why kill humans for meat when the humans could be used to provide such fine treats?

"Leave woman!" the brother sentry spoke again, snarling and threatening now more than bored or disgusted. "Leave or we'll kill you!"

"Brother," the female demon's voice was cautious, "She's not…"

In the silence between the female's words and her brother's realization of what she was trying to say, Shimofuri heard a baby's whimpering cry.

"She's not quite human." The brother finished in a quiet, almost awed voice.

The males in front of Shimofuri remained obnoxiously oblivious. One of them shouted, "Kill her already Ku, dammit, what are you waiting for?"

Shimofuri heard a few footsteps thumping over the ground. Unlike a normal human, the demon sentry, despite his bipedal form, leapt over the canals easily. Soon both the males were approaching the sibling couple, grumbling under their breath the whole way.

"Stop!" the brother hissed out a warning, sounding distinctly alarmed. "_You idiots, stop!"_

They halted, the thumping footsteps ceasing. Shimofuri remained crouched where he was, unmoving and waiting.

"The child—it's a _pup."_ The female breathed, gasping.

"Speak!" one of the males ahead of Shimofuri shouted, growling. The siblings hissed out another warning, ordering silence, but this time the woman, creature, beast—whatever it was—that they were speaking to finally obliged their request.

"Stay away from me, demons."

Shimofuri felt a ripple of something approaching horror race through him. The voice was small and gentle, a young woman's, but deep inside it he could hear a second voice, aged and gravelly. Both voices were familiar to Shimofuri, but neither voice was where he expected it to be. One was supposed to be human and in mortal danger at the hands of his crazed mother, the other was supposed to be dead.

"She's a miko." The female said, distressed.

"Kill her!" the other, distant males shouted yet again.

"Ane—run!" the brother yelled, frantic.

There was a sudden rumble of many feet tumbling over the ground. A whirring sound that Shimofuri couldn't identify sent his body shivering anew. The hair all over his dog's body stood on edge. He sensed the strange creature's presence and felt his mind reel.

It was familiar. Shimofuri knew the aura that this creature bore. It wielded dark magic, deep and ugly, grating on his otherworldly senses. It was not identical to what he'd known before, there was something else mixed in, but it was close enough.

It was _Garou._

A shriek echoed through the air, the brother sentry, Ku, had been hit, injured or killed somehow. Shimofuri smelled the blood in the air sharply. His empty stomach squeezed in on itself, but Shimofuri pushed the sickness away. The whirring sound was rising again, growing more powerful. It made Shimofuri's skin prickle just as it had before.

The males that had blocked his approach to the castle howled and ran, snarling. They'd taken on their dog forms again. They leapt over the canals, their paws tumbling over the earth, thumping for Shimofuri to hear. They were going to leap right over his spot.

Shimofuri sprang out of the canal just before they reached it, snarling immediately. He saw the males for the first time, gray and lithe bodies slick with sinuous muscle. They were runners, hunters, but their teeth were large and vicious as any guard dog's.

Startled at his abrupt appearance, the sentries swerved, snapping at him. Saliva flew wildly, frothy and slimy, but their jaws snapped on air. They stumbled, one of them falling into the canal that Shimofuri had been hiding in, the other rolling a little further away, head over paws.

Shimofuri shook out his pelt, freeing it of the ice water, and then paused, staring with his wide blue eyes at the creature that had distracted the sentries. The moment he saw it he froze, his entire body stiffening with shock and horror.

It was Inuyasha's mate, standing brush against the snowy breeze. Her skin was a sickly gray; her eyes were too dark and heavy with rings of exhaustion beneath them. Yet, in her arms, a baby was embraced almost crushingly close to her body. Only its bright silver-white hair was exposed. Occasionally a tiny dog ear flicked this way and that against the wind.

Her eyes narrowed and her face twisted as she took him in, it was a foreign expression of hatred, one so powerful that her young mortal woman's face couldn't quite contain its ugliness. It was the fierce snarl of a demon.

"_Shimo-chan!"_

* * *

Despite her long stay in the ancient demon's possession, Tsukiyume was strong and able-bodied, as Inuyasha was relieved to discover. Their journey after Shimofuri had left them was kept up at a surprisingly swift pace. His initial impression of the hanyou girl was one of weakness. Her fingernails were neat and trimmed, her teeth straight and white. Her clothes were a terrible mess, but underneath the dirt and the tears Inuyasha was sure he could see that the fabric had once been made of fine silks. It was a kimono worthy of a princess certainly.

The girl carried herself proudly, even with her bloodstained, dirt-covered clothes, even with the rips in it that half revealed her young body. Inuyasha had torn part of his under robe away and given it to her wordlessly. She was a bright girl, she didn't need to think long before she'd found an impromptu way to use the sliver of fabric as a belt or a tie to keep her clothing from gaping open where it'd been torn across her chest.

They hardly spoke a word to one another. Inuyasha was busy fretting over Koinu and Kagome, quietly trying to keep himself sane while they walked through the edge of the Western Lands, searching for his brother. He didn't know whether the girl respected his unspoken wish for silence, or if she merely had concerns of her own that weighed her down. Either way it left a thick, cloying silence between them. Inuyasha was both relieved by it and bothered at once.

It'd been years since he'd had to travel in just such a way, walking across the different lands, trying to keep his friends safe while collecting the Shikon Jewel Shards. But in those days there had always been someone talking. True, it hadn't always been talk aimed at him, but often just background noise of any kind was a filler, a wonderful thing to distract his weary, worrying mind.

He missed Kagome now more than he had ever thought possible. If the unthinkable happened, if he lost them…

He spent half a day fingering the hilt of Tetsuseiga, considering the next night he would be human. How many days and nights between then and now? If she really was gone, every one of those days would be agony, a slow, tortuous wait until he was mortal and weak, vulnerable.

Even with such heavy, dreadful thoughts, it was barely sunset of the second day when Inuyasha and Tsukiyume found themselves standing outside the great wall that bordered Sesshomaru's castle. Inuyasha scowled at the thing and let the girl deal with the guards that came to challenge them at the doorway.

"We've come to speak with Lord Sesshomaru." She told them; speaking with a clear, firm voice. Inuyasha sneered at the ground as he realized that the voice reminded him of the pink-eyed bitch, Tsukiyume and Shimofuri's mother. It was the same voice she'd used many times to negotiate with him.

Had she ever really negotiated with him as if he were an equal? No, she'd always been trying to deceive him, use him. Only her children had really stepped in and spared him. the politics were disgusting.

Little did he know it was only going to get worse.

"Lady Tsukiyume, daughter of Lady Taikokajin." The guard grunted, glancing between the girl and the disgruntled, depressed hanyou. "You brought Inuyasha with you."

Tsukiyume looked back at him, revealing a slight surprise in her otherwise warm, sincere eyes. "Yes, Lord Inuyasha is with me."

Inuyasha looked up, at last dimly hearing his own name. "What do you want?" he snarled.

"I don't want anything." The guard looked too pleased with himself, too smug. Inuyasha wanted to tear his teeth out, one by one. He frowned miserably and looked up at the sky, gray and gloomy.

"Lord Sesshomaru though, he's been waiting for you to come back."

Inuyasha blinked with surprise, but he refused to show the guard his reaction. Instead he turned his frown from facing the sky and redirected it to the dirt. The snow was crusted and heaped around the gates. The fresh snow was mixed with the dirt, making a cold, rough mud. It was pitted with horse hooves.

"Does he wish to see us?" Tsukiyume asked, still speaking with her adult's negotiating voice, the diplomacy voice that made Inuyasha sick to his stomach.

The guard led them inside, talking jovially as he lead them. He was apparently in a good mood. He was a human, in service to the inuyoukai clan most of his life. Dog demons, therefore, didn't frighten him. If he'd served in a different household, hanyous might have made him uncomfortable, but because this was Sesshomaru's estate, he'd run across Inuyasha before. In fact, the way he glanced back at the hanyou from time to time seemed to reveal a sort of admiration, but he said nothing and only rarely addressed Inuyasha directly.

It was probably a wise move on his part. The hanyou was more than a little sour and for good reason.

It wasn't long before Inuyasha found himself waiting for his older brother to meet them in the audience room again, only this time, instead of waiting with Shimofuri he was with Tsukiyume, another hanyou—and this time he found it was impossible for him to stand still. He paced the room like a caged animal, squeezing Tetsuseiga's hilt with one fist, while the other clenched and unclenched at his side.

Tsuki remained quiet, calm and serene. She stared at the floor, as any good and patient woman of her time was expected to.

Inuyasha cursed the delay—and his brother—up one side and down the other. And he desperately tried not to think about Kagome or Koinu and what this delay could be costing them all.

At long last the door to the audience room slid open. Inuyasha's ears flicked backward at the sound of rustling robes. Sesshomaru entered the room, tall and somber, his expression cold and stoic. His clothing was unadorned, even bland. The kimono was white, only a few kanji characters crept up one shoulder, saying his name and his heritage. Behind him Rin emerged, also wearing a very simple kimono, but hers was red, startling to Inuyasha's eye. In the otherwise bland, brownish-colored room with its squeaky floorboards and unadorned walls, Rin was stunning, like an orchid sprouting from a clump of dandelion weeds.

Tsukiyume bowed immediately, so low her forehead touched the matting she was sitting on. "Lord Sesshomaru. Lady." She didn't use Rin's name, and Inuyasha had to wonder if she even knew it. How well trained was the hanyou girl in politics anyway? How many rulers did she know and recognize by sight?

"Taikokajin's daughter." Sesshomaru responded, his voice almost bored. "I see you are well."

Inuyasha snorted, ears lying flat. Tsukiyume handled herself as a lady, in spite of the fact that her hair, her clothes, and her skin were all filthy and untended. How could she have presented herself any other way, considering she'd been a captive up until Inuyasha and Shimofuri had come and rescued her?

"So you're still the same old asshole, aren't you, Sersshomaru?" he scowled, still pacing. He'd never once bowed to his brother, whether it be in battle or in court, he refused to show respect to his brother. At this moment he felt thoroughly empowered by his brother's rudeness.

"Little brother," Sesshomaru didn't lift his golden eyes to follow his pacing sibling, "Calm yourself. As long as you do not cause trouble, this will not take long."

Inuyasha snorted but said nothing. Partly this was because it was in his interest to let things head along at a good speed, but it was also because a certain scent had caught his attention in the past thirty seconds while his brother had been speaking. The scent shared between his half-brother and Rin—the scent of mates, tender, loving, and trusting—made his innards wrench up, like a fist squeezing his guts together like the hamburger meat he'd seen Mrs. Higurashi mash up for Buyo once. The tough as nails hanyou suddenly found himself fighting a lump of grief in his throat, his eyes burning with potential tears.

He stopped pacing, frowning furiously, and kept his back to his brother and to Rin and Tsukiyume, slowly regaining his composure and praying to whatever deity he could that Sesshomaru wouldn't notice a change in his scent.

"There is a situation in the Middle Lands, currently." Sesshomaru began, bored. "The Isei province, Nishiyori's lands, have moved to overtake Taikokajin's."

Inuyasha cocked one ear, listening not so much to his brother's words as to the tones and the lack of titles his brother was using. Instead of calling the ruler of the Isei province "Lord" such and such, he called him simply Nishiyori. He treated Taikokajin the same way. It could have been a simple matter that Sesshomaru truly didn't care about their titles, but it could also denote Sesshomaru's lack of respect for the rulers and the entire Inuyoukai clan.

"My mother would never allow it." Tsukiyume responded, apparently alarmed to hear of Nishiyori's uprising. "She knows how to deal with Lord Nishiyori…"

"Your mother is a fool." Sesshomaru said, coldly. There was a pause, and in it Inuyasha heard Rin clear her throat, wordlessly telling her mate that he was being too harsh with the hanyou girl. When Sesshomaru spoke again his voice was softened slightly, but still uncaring and remote. "Taikokajin is reputedly out of her mind—and dying now as well."

Inuyasha cursed, "Damn."

"You wish to add something, little brother?" Sesshomaru asked. There was a quiet tone to his voice that told Inuyasha that the proper answer to that particular question was NO.

As usual, he ignored that suggestion. "I wanted to kill that bitch myself!" even as he said it he twisted around awkwardly, aware that he was talking about young Tsukiyume's mother.

To her credit, Tsukiyume said nothing, merely bore his words stoically as a proper Inuyoukai should have.

"Contain yourself, brother." Sesshomaru murmured, with a noticeable amount of disgust in his voice.

"How does this Nishiyori guy have anything to do with me?" Inuyasha demanded, at last feeling confident enough to whirl around and face Sesshomaru and the others without giving in to his feelings of grief.

"He will be searching for young Shimofuri. He will also not take kindly to unknown trespassers, especially not half-demons." The Inuyoukai lord's golden eyes narrowed, but his voice remained unchanged as he spoke. Even so, both Tsukiyume and Inuyasha twitched and squirmed at his words, uncomfortably.

"What do you want us to do, Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha growled, scowling at the floor and flattening his ears. As almost an afterthought he added quietly, as if to himself, "I just want to go home."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed down to horizontal slits of gold, like the sun peeking over the horizon. A rare full expression transformed his face into frown that was not unlike Inuyasha's. "I trust you both to slip through and reach Shimofuri in time, nefore Nishiyori tries to imprison him or kill him. When you find him, tell him that I will be coming to visit him soon."

Inuyasha snorted, "Why's that so important?"

Rin shifted uncomfortably from her corner by the door, bowing slightly. "What my lord means to say is that he will support Lord Shimofuri in this war. He will provide young Shishi-sama with troops and supplies to defeat Nishiyori."

The mood in the room was abruptly tense; the silence between the four for of them was full of thought. Inuyasha thought of Sesshomaru's lack of titles, and the sudden alliance with a young lord in the clan. Sesshomaru hated the Inuyoukai clan—why suddenly would he step into a civil war? Why was he supporting Shimofuri? He might've asked why Sesshomaru was choosing sides, but again Rin's female scent reached him, reminding him painfully of Kagome.

Struggling with his emotions again, the hanyou turned away from the others, snarling, "Can we get the hell out of here now? I'll tell that stupid kid whatever the hell you want me to, Sesshomaru."

"Inuyasha."

"What the hell is it now, Sesshomaru?" the hanyou blustered, still without turning to facing them.

"You're worried about your mate, and the pup, are you not?"

Inuyasha's ears flattened, his fists tightened into thick balls of rage. His muscles shook, quivering as he strove to keep himself restrained. Somehow, through nothing short of a miracle, he didn't say anything.

"There is no need for your worry, Inuyasha. The word I've received from the Nanka province is that the one that left Taikokajin on her deathbed was a human woman, a miko that Taikokajin—the fool—was keeping captive." Sesshomaru was almost smug, amazingly, "She has escaped, with a child."

"If you're lying…" Inuyasha's voice was low, dangerous, rising out of his chest in a deep, throaty way that was more of a growl than actual language. He was a wronged father and mate, desperate and afraid to risk hoping.

"Believe what you want, brother, but it is best that you be on your way." He bowed to Tsukiyume and they began exchanging formal goodbyes, in her corner Rin was already crouched again in a bow, sliding open the door for her mate as he passed through.

When she was alone with them both for a moment, Rin stared out unabashedly at the emotional hanyou and the cold, stiff Tsukiyume. Her face was soft and warm, full of a would-be mother's gentleness and empathy. "I am dearly sorry to you both—Tsukiyume, for your mother, for the trouble your brother must face, for the pain it must cause you."

She looked then to Inuyasha and bowed. Her hair, loose and long around her shoulders, slipped forward and shrouded her face like a black curtain. "Inuyasha—I wish you the best of luck in finding your mate and your son, alive and well. May it be then that all this trouble between us is over."

With one last, timid smile, she slipped through the sliding screen door and closed it behind her, leaving Tsukiyume and Inuyasha both to their separate grievances and urgencies.

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"_Shimo-chan!"_

It spoke with a voice that was not the woman's, but Shimofuri recognized it as being Garou's easily. His fur bristled and bushed all over his body.

The males, having gotten back onto their paws, stared between Shimofuri and the strange woman with the impossible demon's voice, perplexed. Which one should they kill now?

The female demon was in human form, kneeling beside the battered, burned, and bloody form of what had once been her brother, some distance away. Her face was pinched terribly, but she didn't cry. Her eyes were not even moist. None of the demons watched her or took note as she looked between her fallen brother and the strange miko woman that had destroyed him.

"_You should be most pleased, Shimo-chan."_ Garou smiled viciously using the young woman's features, _"I've just promoted you."_

Shimofuri moved slowly, his paws crunching the snow as he moved further away from both Inuyasha's demon-possessed mate, and the sentries that had been chasing him up until moments ago. He tried to keep himself from listening to the thing's taunts, but a part of his heart seized up, anticipating the demon's words.

"_You would kill this little human bitch to get at me?"_ the thing leered and held the pup in its arms a little tighter. _"You can't touch me and you know it. You're so wrapped up with obligations, rights and wrongs—weakness…"_

The sister to the fallen male sentry, Ane, suddenly leapt for the thing, snarling in her true form. Inuyasha's mate lifted one arm, palm facing the leaping inuyoukai, and a whirring sound began at once. Bright, glowing purple-black energy formed there, in the human woman's palm. It burst out from her, smashing into the leaping inuyoukai woman, coating her. Ane fell away, yipping and shrieking in pain. Her body was alight with the purplish flames, it flickered, half in and half out of her true and bipedal forms. At last she fell to the frozen earth, silent. The glow of purple fire around her diminished almost at once.

The males, seeing this, turned tail and ran away without looking back. They howled frantically with a retreat call. Their paws kicked up snow and hard, chilled dirt behind them. In a moment they'd made it to the tree line and had vanished into it, no more than shadows.

Shimofuri paced along the edge of the groove he'd taken refuge in, staring at the abomination before him. Neither human nor demon, and holding Inuyashas's child in its arms. He knew if he tried to run Garou would use the miko's power, alongside his own dark magic, to strike him down in his tracks. If he stayed Shimofuri could barely dream what the monster would want or what it would say.

"_Poor little fool,"_ Garou cackled, but midway through his following words the voice changed, becoming feminine and softer. "You're trapped while I'm free. But don't be sad little Shimo-chan." It smiled now, and sickeningly the expression was almost human. "You have what you want, and I have what I want."

It lifted the pup into the air and tweaked the tiny white dog ears lovingly.

Shimofuri stopped his pacing and closed his eyes, reaching deep within himself to dredge up his bipedal form. In a moment he was standing tall and proud, fully robed in his blue-gray kimono before the tiny, sickly woman.

"Why are you doing this, Garou? You must have more honor than this. You've lost, why make the miko suffer? Why the pup?" he was proud of how calm his voice was, how the words, though they made no sense really, would possibly slow Garou enough to allow Shimofuri to come up with a plan.

The beast answered with both its normal, masculine voice, and the feminine voice of Inuyasha's mate. _"We will do anything to survive!"_

Shimofuri narrowed his eyes on the woman, watching the way her fingers worked over the baby's ears, gently, smoothly. She moved and held the baby like a real mother. Could Garou understand how to care for a child? Could he be gentle enough to still the child's crying? Shimofuri doubted it. The demon had left the miko partially in control of her body, partially still trapped within her crazed, weakened mind.

He searched his memory, finding woman's name as Inuyasha had told it to him. "Kagome," he called, and was rewarded when the woman's head jerked spasmodically, quirking to listen. Her eyes seemed to lighten, focusing on him more clearly. Her grasp on the baby tightened down more protectively. "You love your pup, do you not?"

"I do." It was the woman's voice, quiet and hoarse that responded, _"She_ was going to take Koinu away from me."

"I know," Shimofuri sighed, feeling his innards sink, "She won't anymore. Inuyasha is coming for you. You remember Inuyasha, right? Your mate, you remember him, right?"

Her face rippled and Shimofuri saw a few muscles spasm throughout her body. She was fighting for control with Garou. She said, almost breathlessly, "I remember Inuyasha. He left…"

"He's coming back, he sent me here to help you…"

A jolt seemed to pass through the miko, her face pinched up, as if she'd tasted something sour. When she spoke her voice was marred by Garou's again. _"How can I believe you?"_

"I have no reason to lie to you, Lady Inuyasha. Inuyasha is my cousin, great and powerful, I—"

A sneer stole over Kagome's once pretty face. _"You have reason enough. I killed your mother."_

Now it was Shimofuri's turn to feel a jolt pass through him. "You…killed my mother?"

The sneer turned to a vicious smile. _"Why so upset, Shimo-chan? I've handed the Middle Lands to you on a silver-platter! All this—"_ Garou gestured with Kagome's hands to the bitter, snowy wind that covered the abandoned little rice field, _"is now yours. Home sweet home."_

Shimofuri was almost frightened by the stillness that settled over his bones, heavy and cold. "You killed my mother?"

"_Did I say kill, Shimo-chan? Oops, I meant left her to suffer and then die."_ it seemed impossible, but somehow the thing's grin leered still bigger, _"Go, hurry. Maybe there's still time for you to say goodbye to her before she goes back to hell."_

He stared at the thing, speechless, torn up inside with how to react to this news. Desperately he searched himself, looking for some inward twinge of pain that would whisper of his mother's suffering out there, somewhere, alone.

The thing grinned sadistically and turned its back on him, ready to leave the field and continue its journey. _"You can thank me later, Shimo-chan."_

Inuyasha's mate started to walk away, slowly, on dainty feet. She stepped into the canals and crossed them carefully, always at the narrowest part. Shimofuri watched her go, torn apart inside. He had to watch after Inuyasha's mate or he'd have to face his cousin's wrath, and the death of Tsukiyume on his shoulders. Yet, at the same time, he didn't dismiss Garou's words. Taikokajin was in her castle, alone, dying.

In spite of all the craziness around him, the whole of the Middle Lands crashing and burning to bits it seemed, Shimofuri was helpless to deny the fact that for all her faults, Taikokajin was his mother. She'd loved him all his life, nursed him as a pup, sung to him after his nightmares as a very young child…

He was a slave to his emotions, caught forever by them, trapped by them the same way that an ancient bee is caught by tree sap and doomed to die as it swallows him whole. The same as Kagome's very own need to survive and keep her child alive and with her had at last driven her into Garou's clutches.

At long last, Shimofuri turned away from Kagome's receding form and face the castle. He fought the bitter sting in his eyes, unshed tears. How weak he was, just as Garou had said.

In a moment he'd retaken the form of the dog and was bounding through the field, leaving a trail of scuffed snow behind him.

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	31. Bargains and Last Wishes

**A/N: I don't know what's going on with the alert systems around here BUT this is the first new WOAWO chapter since my hiatus. I wrote it in about 24 hours...**if you have a weak stomach BEWARE! some of this chapter is not pretty. I have been known to freak people out (just read Was It All A Dream? which was so creepy even for me the writer that I quit it) Anyway...there's your **warning.**

**Disc: Nope, not a single claim on him or the rest of them. But Shimofuri, Koinu, Kohimu, Tisoki, Kasai, Tsukiyume, and Taikokajin, they're my inventions, though the world they belong to is not mine either. :-) simple enough for ya?**

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**Chapter Review: Last chapter**: **Shimofuri** was rushing toward his homelands and was waylaid by sentries from his great uncle **Nishiyori,** who is currently revolting against Taikokajin's family rule. While Shimofuri was running from them he ran into **Kagome and Koinu** who are escaping from Taikokajin's hold. **Kagome** whooped some butt and continued on her way, **Shimofuri** was unable to bring himself to chase her when he heard his mother was dying. Kagome is possessed by the undead demon **Garou. **Garou in Kagome's body attacked **Taikokajin** who is now dying...(I WARNED YOU!). **Inuyasha and Tsukiyume** are trying to make it back to rescue Kagome and Koinu, Tsukiyume is currently IY's collateral that Shimofuri will be loyal as he runs ahead. They stopped and visited **Rin and Sesshomaru. **The royal couple sent a message with Inuyasha and Tsuki that Sesshomaru and his armies in the **Western Lands** support **Shimofuri** and not **Nishiyori.**

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**Bargains and Last Wishes**

A harsh wind had sprung up out of the northwest, bringing a few rogue snowflakes, round and bitterly cold, to fly through the silent forest. Inuyasha and Tsukiyume didn't break that eerie silence with wasted conversation. Both were wrapped in separate miseries, worrying about family and loved ones whose lives were in danger.

On the way out from Sesshomaru's grounds, a few maids had stopped Tsukiyume and offered her some clothing. Warm, thick robes and pants to keep her warm in the miserable early spring weather. That was compliments of Rin of course; Sesshomaru probably would've preferred that Taikokajin's hanyou daughter got frostbite. Of course he didn't provide Inuyasha with shoes—the hanyou's feet should have been a defiance of nature they were so calloused and insensitive.

Inuyasha kept a swift pace, rushing through the trees, but Tsukiyume slowed him down. The girl was not accustomed to intense travel. She huffed and panted behind him, but she never complained. Urgency was just as important to her as it was to Inuyasha. As a hanyou she was worthless to the inuyoukai clan. If Shimofuri and Taikokajin both died it would leave her with nowhere to go, no one to protect her. She'd be thrust into much the same circumstances that Inuyasha had after his mother was murdered. (A/N: she was murdered, wasn't she?)

It was late in the night when he picked up the scent, and he almost missed it as it was.

The forest was deathly quiet. Except for the whisper of the tree branches together as the wind stirred them, Inuyasha could hear absolutely nothing. The loudest sounds for miles were their own feet pounding the earth. The moon was shrouded off and on by a few wispy clouds that looked ominously like the stuff that produce snow.

Wrapped up in his worries, fears for Kagome and Koinu, it was only a stumble that let him accidentally bring his nose close enough to the chilled ground to take in the scent. He stopped so swiftly after smelling it that he stumbled and fell, rolling a short distance before catching himself with his claws.

Tsuki, trailing by a short ways, was able to see his accident and stop in time easily. She was panting as she came to stand beside him, offering a hand to lend him up. Inuyasha ignored her, ears flattened and scowling fiercely. He kept low, on his hands and knees, sniffing. Crawling a few feet back up the steep hill he soon found the scent again: blood.

Blood itself was a strong scent in his mind—but this was no ordinary few drops of blood. It was _Kagome's blood._

His stomach tightened up inside him like a fist. He froze over the spot, on all fours, staring at it and fighting back his nausea.

Tsukiyume at last found the courage to break their long silence. "What is it, Lord Inuyasha?"

The hanyou would've bristled at her formal address, but all other coherent thought had been erased by the blood. He ignored her yet again and pawed at the ground, searching for more blood…there was none. It was a tiny spot, but where there was one there should be more. And Kagome didn't leave any shortage of scents these days. There would be the scent of milk with her, and Koinu's scent as well.

He stood up, sniffing futilely at the wind. Which way had she gone? He changed direction abruptly and leapt downhill, searching the ground with his eyes for tracks, stains, anything that might give away another scent.

Tsukiyume knelt at the spot where he'd been sniffing and did the same, gingerly. She was younger than Shimofuri and sheltered as a daughter of nobility, even if she was a hanyou. Using her senses wasn't something she'd had ample opportunity to do. And yet her nose worked well enough.

"A human female's blood." she called after Inuyasha, "Why have you stopped for this?"

For the third time, Inuyasha completely ignored her. He'd found a few places where leaf litter was scuffed, where saplings and old decaying ferns had been bent or scattered. Kneeling low to the ground, Inuyasha sniffed at it, taking it in. There was the stink of decay, of the usual host of worms and other earthy bugs, feces, mold, urine from small deer and rabbits…

In a small hollow, beside a few scuffed leaves, he found the biggest score yet. There was a tiny trace of blood, but masking that was the clear odor of Kagome's milk, of Koinu's urine. The scents were almost normal as far as he could tell, relatively healthy and alive. Kagome's scent distressed him slightly; there was something off about it. He hoped it was just stress. The pattern of the footprints told him that they'd been traveling up the hill.

And the scents were less than an hour old.

"Lord Inuyasha?" Tsukiyume called, timidly, from near the top of the hill. She was shivering, fearful, confused, and alone.

Inuyasha stared up at her, scowling. Could she make it back without him? If he could reach Kagome and Koinu he'd be out of the whole mess without ever looking back, yet he wasn't cruel enough to leave the young hanyou girl all alone in the wilderness.

He leapt up the hill in two bounds to face her. "Do you know the way back on your own?"

Despite all of her formal training, her political background, Tsukiyume blanched so much at his question that Inuyasha wanted to slap her. She was helpless. "On my own?"

Inuyasha ground his teeth together with irritation. "Come with me then." She'd been so smart earlier, right after they'd rescued her. Maybe the shock of being abducted and abused by an ancient, homicidal youkai had finally caught up with her.

Turning his back on her, Inuyasha leapt back further up the hill, in the direction they'd been traveling from before, as if he wanted to head back to Sesshomaru's lands. Tsukiyume frowned as she followed him, but she moved without questioning her hanyou cousin at all.

They ascended another hill and then began descending another when the silence of the forest abruptly shattered with spine-tingling laughter. Inuyasha slid to a stop, scuffing the leaf-litter and dirt up beneath his feet. Tsukiyume came to a stop just behind him, blinking and pushing the hair out of her face.

The sound echoed through the trees, bouncing off them and through the twisting maze of hills and valleys. The sound intimidated Tsuki, but it actually horrified Inuyasha.

He _recognized_ the laughter, at least part of it.

The laugher was feminine, at least partly. Inuyasha could hear the same notes in the sound that had, in many happier times, eased his mood no matter what the day had held. It was a sound he'd worked to hear before, saying something he hoped was nice rather than something obnoxious or sarcastic.

Now the sound was bone-chilling, sickening.

It was Kagome's voice, Kagome's laughter.

But there were darker undertones to it, something that he faintly recognized as well. As the wheels in his brain began to turn it didn't take him long to realize who else he was hearing.

Tsukiyume was shivering behind him. "What's going on?"

"_You're about to die, that's what's going on!"_ the voice that was neither Kagome's, nor quite the demon Garou's announced. The words echoed off the trees again, sending Inuyasha's ears twitching this way and that, searching. His heart was rattling in his ribs, as if ready to break out and go on its own search for Kagome.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted, not knowing really what else to do, "You're stronger than this! Kick that bastard out of your body!"

"Kagome," Tsukiyume murmured behind him, at last understanding. She drew in a sharp breath and began looking around with her own eyes and ears, trying to locate the aforementioned woman.

"_You fool! She's gone. I am all that exists in this frail bitch's body! I've been waiting for you, hanyous."_

Panic tried to bloom inside Inuyasha, but he fought it back. _No, Kagome wouldn't give in. Koinu is alive still. She was feeding him. Garou would never have done that…_

"Kagome! Snap out of it!" he rushed forward into the valley ahead, trying to force Garou to make a move to reveal himself. He sniffed frantically with his nose, seeking the scents he'd grown so accustomed to, scents of the two people that mattered most in his world since his mother had died…

Tsukiyume fidgeted alone, suddenly weak again. Without the help of her priest father's spirit she was intimidated, uncertain. The shadows around her seemed huge; her normally unused nose was bombarded by earth scents. It was difficult for her to distinguish any one scent from another yet. She realized, with crushing certainty, that she was helpless here, and with Inuyasha as clearly distracted as he was Garou could pick her off at any moment.

She raced after Inuyasha, the dead leaves rustling beneath her feet like dried bones.

Just as Tsukiyume came up behind him, Inuyasha sensed a presence ahead of him, just up the next embankment. The trees were smaller there, tiny evergreens and pines that clung to the edges of the small rock faces at the bottom of the hill. He paused, tensing, searching the clump of trees carefully with his amber eyes.

Something leapt out from the clump, rolling away through the leaves. A clap resounded through the stoic, otherwise silent forest. _"Die, Inuyasha!"_

A dark substance that only glowed around its fringes raced toward Inuyasha and Tsukiyume. The hanyous fell together, leaping and then rolling away. The blast, or energy, or whatever it was, acted more like slime when it hit the forest around it. The stuff coated the tree trunks, the leaf litter, the small saplings littering the little valley floor, and made them glow a sickening purple. Most of them shriveled, as if touched by acid.

A rank, rancid stink of burning protein floated up from the mess to Inuyasha and Tsuki's noses.

"_A shame! I missed!"_ the voice cackled, gleefully, _"Tell me Inuyasha, who would you like to die first? You, or the hanyou bitch you've come with?"_

"You're the only one that's going to die here Garou!" Inuyasha snarled, snatching up Tsukiyume's hand and pulling her away from the stink of the destruction Garou's blast had left.

"_Oh, but I don't believe that's possible, is it?"_ the voice was quieter now, but full of masculine courage. The rough, gravelly sound of it overwhelmed Kagome's gentle female vocal cords, making the sound very ugly, very dirty. But when it spoke the next time the voice was much more recognizable as Kagome's. "You can run, Inuyasha, but you can't kill me, you know that don't you?"

Sheltering Tsukiyume behind him, Inuyasha at last turned to regard the monster that had taken his mate's body, and froze, instantly feeling a lump of pain forming in his throat, the burn of tears in his eyes. The creature that was stalking him was Kagome. As far as he could see, though it was dark, there was nothing to distinguish her from any other time he'd seen her. And yet when she moved it was slowly, not like a woman or a human, but like an animal, stalking slowly up on its prey. And she seemed to have no weight, almost to float over the leaves. Her delicate feet—bare, he realized with a jolt—hardly rustled the leaves.

_She wasn't carrying Koinu with her. _

"Kagome…" he whispered, almost whimpering, "Where's Koinu, where's our son? Snap out of it! This isn't you!"

The figure halted briefly, silent and unmoving as one of the trees around them. But then she laughed, not Kagome's laugh, but Garou's throaty, gravelly cackle. _"Hanyou bastard! How many times do I need to tell you? This little bitch is gone. Gone for good. But even so, you're too stupid to kill me and save the whelp, are you? You can't—you're weak because you're attached to this body."_ He cackled again, triumphantly, _"And that's why I choose her! Revenge!"_

Tsukiyume was shivering again behind him, "You have to kill her!" she rasped.

Inuyasha's ears flattened, his mind raced, desperately seeking a way out…_I can't kill Kagome, I can't kill her…_

* * *

"Shimofuri." A tall, fair-skinned and blue eyed inuyoukai bowed to the young heir of the Middle Lands. His hair was white like snow, much like Taikokajin's, but unlike her this male possessed some pigment—his eyes were not pink but blue. "Welcome home. I wish I could say that the news was better—"

"Uncle." Shimofuri interrupted him, bowing. He didn't have time for pleasantries and courtly banter. Besides, he and his uncle, Sasugainu, were on friendly terms. Sasugainu was the only male that wasn't a son that Taikokajin thought of kindly of, her younger brother. "Tell me what's happened."

The two inuyoukai moved together, falling in line. Although Shimofuri was deeper in color, with blue-black hair and blue eyes, it was clear from their movements that they were related to each other. They walked with confidence and grace through the long halls of Taikokajin's castle. Sliding doors, _fusuma,_ lined both sides of the wall, painted with birds and flowers, pheasants, peacocks, maples with their leaves draped over into the water.

The scenery might've been beautiful but the scenes inside were gruesome, as Shimofuri soon learned.

"Nishiyori had amassed his armies; he'll be marching on us soon. His plan was likely to have you killed. He would storm this castle, capture Taikokajin and have her and Tsukiyume take their own lives. Without you to worry about the Middle Lands are heirless…"

"You would be the heir." Shimofuri pointed out.

"Nishiyori does not consider me a serious contender. I am allied to him by marriage. Either that or he would kill me of—"

Shimofuri closed his eyes, giving his uncle this short, quiet gesture to silence him. After a heavy, lengthy pause, he finally asked, "What about my mother?"

Sasugainu's face changed, becoming cold and stony, detached. "I understand Lady Taikokajin was holding a certain woman hostage here. A miko. The miko broke loose and attacked Lady Taikokajin. There was a child involved, some dispute. Lady Taikokajin was injured, badly."

Shimofuri didn't open his eyes. "She lives?"

"The Lady Taikokajin lives. She is…"

When Sasugainu's voice drifted off Shimofuri at last opened his eyes and faced his uncle directly. "Speak."

"She is not sane, Nephew. Your mother…I should have taken her life myself to spare her this humiliation." Sasugainu stared Shimofuri down with a hard, unflinching gaze. "As you are the heir to the Middle Lands, Shishi-sama, I will still take her life for you if you wish it." He dropped the formality for his last words, "Seeing her in such a state—it should not be a son's last memory."

"I will see her, Uncle." Shimofuri answered, sighing once. The rest, deciding who would put her out of her misery; it would have to come later.

Sasugainu ducked low in a bow and turned, heading down the hall. Shimofuri followed him, slowly.

* * *

"_Die!"_ the Not-Kagome monster lifted its arms, palms outward and shot the same dark, purple-glowing energy out at Inuyasha and Tsukiyume.

The couple ran in different directions this time. Tsukiyume skirted up one of the steep hill, leaping and bounding. Inuyasha ran back towards the previous spots that Garou-in-Kagome had blasted. The clump of trees stayed in his mind prominently. She'd been hiding there. The place was well covered, likely a little warmer there than any other place here. It would shelter from the wind, from prying eyes, and from a small breeze carrying away scent…

"_Run, run, run Inuyasha!"_ No-Kagome cackled behind him.

Instinct propelled Inuyasha to swerve, narrowly ducking and missing the blast of purple glowing energy that she hurled at him. The clump of trees sat in front of him. He leapt high, overshooting it slightly but letting the slope of the hill and gravity slide him backward into the thicket of saplings.

It was exactly as he'd suspected—the Garou monster had hidden Koinu in the thicket, leaving him relatively safe there but cold and whimpering to himself alone.

"_No!"_ the monster was shouting, frantic, desperate. _"No! Not the whelp!"_

Koinu, shivering and curled into himself, started to cry when Inuyasha grabbed him up. The baby fought a little, kicking and showing his little mostly toothless mouth, and then he recognized his father's scent and immediately fell limp and started cooing. He clutched at his father's haori with as much force as his little body possessed and his tiny white ears flicked against Inuyasha's chin.

Garou-Kagome had stopped its approach and was staring with wide, horrified eyes as Inuyasha reappeared from inside the thicket, clutching Koinu against him. The expression was not befitting a demon like Garou, it was one that fit a mother worrying over her child, though.

Kagome stretched out her arms, they shook wildly. _"Please, not the…"_ her voice changed, softening and rising in pitch and losing its otherworldly qualities. It was almost completely Kagome's voice now. "Not him—not Koinu. Please! I'm begging you…"

"Kagome," Inuyasha felt his ears flatten on top of his head, "It's me, it's Inuyasha. Snap out of it, I'd never hurt Koinu."

In the darkness Garou-Kagome's eyes gleamed wildly with fear. "Give him back. I'm his mother—please!"

Koinu whimpered, hearing his mother and the stress in her strange, altered voice. Seeking comfort, he dug with his tiny clawed fingers, pulling aside Inuyasha's haori slightly until he could press his lips against the bare skin of his father's throat. He tried to suckle on this exposed skin.

Inuyasha's heart sank, twisting as it fell. "I'm his father, Kagome, please—_snap out of it!"_

Garou-Kagome was shaking, stepping back from him. The stink of salty tears hit Inuyasha and made him scowl. The urge to rush forward and comfort her was huge and purely instinctual. He knew that if he raced forward the demon inhabiting Kagome's body would exert control again and would touch him with the toxic, noxious purple energy—black magic, ancient evil magic, not Kagome's purifying priestess's energy. But the sight, smell, and sound of the monster's reaction told him one thing with absolute certainty: _Kagome was still in there._

If Kagome was still present and intact then Garou's hold over her could be broken and the spirit banished for good.

"Please, my baby…"

Her tone drove Inuyasha mad, and for a moment he took a step forward, as if to comfort her. But then there was a shout from the opposite side of the small valley, "Don't listen to her! Inuyasha—it's playing with you! It just wants you to get close enough so it can touch you!"

Inuyasha ignored her, but he did take the advice. He already knew that that was what the demon inside Kagome wanted. But what he hadn't considered yet was whether or not Garou was purposefully pretending to reveal Kagome to him. Was it possible that she wasn't there anymore?

His knees felt weak at the thought. How could he know for sure?

"_Little bitch!"_ Garou-Kagome shouted, staring back at Tsukiyume. "You can't take him away from me!"

The voice was Kagome's at the end, an angry, hurt shout. It was all the proof Inuyasha needed. Garou's spirit had taken advantage of Kagome while she was under stress, it had lied to her and manipulated her with its powers, deceiving her and deluding her…_but it had not destroyed her._ Beyond the monster's inhabiting spirit Kagome was intact.

While his possessed mate had turned away from him, Inuyasha rushed away, climbing uphill. He clutched Koinu to him protectively; cringing each time he landed and jarred the pup. Koinu, understanding danger and the need for haste instinctually, held on tightly. The only sounds that escaped his throat were tiny grunts as his father bounded over the forest floor.

"_No! You can't take him!"_ the beast was shouting, desperate. Both voices were desperate. Garou needed Koinu alive—but why exactly? Garou ate hanyous but technically Koinu was not a hanyou, he was mostly human…

With his stronger body and heightened senses, Inuyasha quickly lost Garou-Kagome in the gloom. He ducked behind a large tree trunk when he thought he'd gained enough of a lead, and then paused, holding his breath as he listened. Garou-Kagome was screaming and cursing in a language that Inuyasha couldn't recognize. She was making no effort to hide herself as she searched for him.

"_You think you can hide from me, Inuyasha?"_ it cackled, sounding distinctly un-Kagome-ish. _"You think you're clever, taking the whelp and hiding from me? Hah! You fool…"_

Suddenly Inuyasha heard Tsukiyume cry out, screaming with fear.

"_That's right you filthy little bitch! You thought I couldn't see you skulking around here, watching us? I'll have my revenge against you too!"_

* * *

A maid scurried to the door when she heard the heavy but careful tread of the inuyoukai lords approaching. Despite her great age she knelt easily and slid the door open, bowing to one side as the youkai lords entered. Sasugainu entered first, nodding briefly to the maid and then stepping aside to allow the younger, more hesitant Shimofuri into the room.

The smell was what reached the young heir first: a burning stink, thick and reeking. It was a complex stench, for underlying the cloying smell of burned protein there was an odor of illness, blood, urine and other bodily fluids. A thin stink of disinfectant, linens, and herbs also lingered.

Shimofuri tried to keep his face from showing the emotions fluttering deep within him. He pretended to stare straight ahead, at the futon bed with its lavish furs, dyed white as Taikokajin liked them. The bed was a place of fond memories for him. As a pup he'd shared it with his mother, enveloped in her warmth, in her scent. For a moment he almost imagined he could scent milk in the room again, as if he were passing not through a doorway into the bedroom, but through time itself, into a much friendlier, simpler past.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself from within.

A young woman approached Sashugainu cautiously, bowing. She was the healer, dressed in ceremonial robes and carrying water for rites of purification.

"Lord Shimofuri has come to see his mother." Sasugainu informed the healer.

The woman bowed again, acknowledging them both. "The Lady Taikokajin is—"

From the bed there was a sharp sound, an indrawn breath. A croaking voice rose up, demanding, "Haiseishoku!"

Shimofuri slipped wordlessly past the healer woman and his uncle and moved slowly toward his mother's bedside. Again he fought the urge to show his emotions in his face. His movements were stiff and slow. Though he pointed his eyes in his mother's direction he let his focus drift. He saw the white furs bunched up over his mother's body, the matting he was kneeling on at her side, not his mother herself.

"Mother." He murmured, cautiously. The urge to look at her was great but Shimofuri doubted he could see her directly and not break his stony expression. "I…I've come with good news…"

There was movement, another sharply indrawn breath. The stink of burned flesh rose more powerfully with her motion. Shimofuri was unable to stifle the urge to cringe.

"Haiseishoku…" she rasped again, weakly. "Leave me."

Again emotion broke through Shimofuri's attempt at the classic stony mask of a proper ruler. A frown took form over his features. "I am not Haiseishoku, I am your son."

The furs moved, shifting. The stink rose again but this time Shimofuri barely noticed as his mother's hand, once smooth and white as porcelain, appeared from under the mass of covers. A mottled gray, charred mass of flesh, some bits burned down to the sharp point of finger bones, reached out toward him.

"Shimofuri…?"

It was impossible for the young heir not to see this thing before him, stretching its skeletal, burned self out to touch him. As his eyes focused first on the hand, they then flew back to the shadowy space between pillow and white, luxurious furs.

Taikokajin's once smooth, beautiful skin was now gray and raw. She looked more like she'd grown a tree's bark instead of skin. But between the cracks and furrows of her broken skin Shimofuri could see red meat and muscle between. Puss and blood oozed around her neck, apparently the most injured place on her that he could see. Bandages covered over some of her neck, but they were moist and soaked through with red-brown blood.

But her eyes were still pink. They were wide open, as if frozen that way, and burning with an expression of horror. As he stared at them, Shimofuri saw them refocus squarely on him.

"Shimofuri!" it was a sick thing—her tear ducts worked. Her eyes clouded with tears. The destroyed hand groped more desperately for Shimofuri's face and neck.

Her tongue was black, her lips swollen and cracked. The skeletal tips of her fingers touched Shimofuri's collarbone and clutched at it.

Disgust and fear melted away, plunging the young heir instead into grief and pity. He took her hand in his, feeling the way her muscles shook and convulsed as she tried to hold onto him. He closed his eyes and felt the burning heat of tears behind his lids. "I'm sorry, Mother. So sorry."

"Tsuki…"

"Tsukiyume is alive, Mother. She's coming home."

Her hold on him relaxed slightly. A slow breath passed out of her charred lips. "Forgive me…"

"Don't talk, please." To his shame his voice was shaking.

"Forgive me." Taikokajin repeated, her fingers twitched, trying to squeeze his hand again, for emphasis.

Shimofuri risked opening his eyes up again and saw that his mother's eyes were no longer wide and horrified. She had nearly let them drift closed. "Mother, you're suffering. Forgive me, I must ask…who do you wish to end…" he choked and scowled angrily, full of shame and frustration.

"Forgive me, Haiseishoku." She murmured weakly.

"Mother, please…who…?"

She moved her head slightly, blinking once. "Haiseishoku."

Sasugainu approached then, startling Shimofuri as he sat down at his sister's bedside, heavily. "Sister, Lady Taikokajin. Haiseishoku is dead. Shimofuri asks if it is your wish that he be the one to end your suffering."

"Forgive me…" she croaked, "Kokoro."

"She has lost her mind." Sasugainu muttered, lowering his gaze. "You should end her suffering now."

Shimofuri pressed Taikokajin's hand between both of his own, refusing to give up yet. "Mother, please. It's _Shimofuri._ It's _your son…"_

She made a tiny sound, like a whimper. "You look like him."

That admission was one that she had never acknowledged willingly before. A few teardrops slipped away from her eyes, running out the corners and dribbling unevenly over her cracked skin.

"I know, Mother—tell me, may I release you?" the words came more easily now, though the shameful tears had yet to stop.

"I must see Tsuki." Taikokajin's eyes drifted closed, her hand fell away limply.

For a moment Shimofuri panicked, reaching for her, ready to find a pulse, but then he caught sight of the furs, rising and falling slowly and evenly with her breaths.

"You should end it for her, now as she sleeps." Sasugainu murmured, his head still bowed. "You do her no favors by letting her live."

Shimofuri replaced his mother's corpse-like hand into the warmth of the furs as carefully and gently as he could. Only then did he answer his cousin. "I will do only what she asks." He closed his eyes, "She must be at peace at the end, that is a universal right."

Sasugainu ducked his head in a small bow, hiding his face. "As you wish, Shishi-sama."

* * *

Inuyasha raked his brains, trying to decide what to do. It wasn't right for Tsukiyume to die at the hands of the monster, and yet he also suspected that the hanyou girl would have no qualms against defending herself from attack. She would kill Kagome, uncaring of Inuyasha's wellbeing. He remembered Garou's last psychic words to him just before Tsukiyume had killed him: "_Submit to me now, or I will use what you love most to ruin you…"_

Koinu whimpered quietly in his arms, frightened and exhausted.

Tsukiyume was making frantic, incoherent sounds of fear and pain, Garou-Kagome was still cackling grotesquely. The forest around Inuyasha was still deathly silent and frozen, except for the sounds of sadistic glee and suffering. Moonlight pierced the trees high in the sky, lighting the gloomy woods slightly.

"_I'll make a deal with you, hanyou Inuyasha!"_ Garou-Kagome yelled, letting the sound ring and echo through the trees, the hills and the valley around them, _"You may even call it a favor! Your name is famous, or so I have heard. I can do the same for your whelp, only better. I can make him immortal…"_

Inuyasha's ears flattened, he snarled at the darkness, forcing himself to remain silent. Koinu followed suit, pressing his little lips again to the base of his father's neck, trying to suckle.

"_Of course it will come at a price—but what doesn't? But I would leave this body, Inuyasha. That is what you want isn't it? I would leave this body free to raise your whelp, and I would make the whelp invincible, immortal. He will live on long after your enemies, long after the other pathetic dogs that turned their back on you when your mother died. He can destroy the inuyoukai clan for you; conquer it in your name, anything you want…"_ Garou-Kagome chuckled once, his voice deep and completely unfeminine now, _"I will do all of that for you, and all I ask is that you do as I say, give your soul up to me."_ Tsukiyume squeaked and cried out with fresh pain then, making Inuyasha wince, _"This little bitch will be the meat and the blood sacrifice I require. Your soul, it is unique. That is what I require. Both of you must die—but your human bitch and the whelp, they will live…"_

"Don't listen!" Tsukiyume cried, but for her effort she must've received another blow because what followed next was unintelligible and filled with pain.

"_It is more than an equal exchange! More than any of you dirty inu-hanyou deserve!"_

Inuyasha closed his eyes, straining his memory, trying to clear away the emotion that clouded his thoughts. If this was the only way that he could free Kagome and save Koinu than Inuyasha knew he'd willingly sacrifice himself for them. But Tsukiyume was an innocent bystander. It was wrong to send her to her death as well—not that he would choose her over Kagome and Koinu. When it came down to it Inuyasha could not be so noble, preserving his mate and offspring was first priority over everything and everyone else, including himself.

But there was a hidden catch in what Garou was saying. There was something sinister about it that in the rush of things Inuyasha couldn't quite grasp. _Immortality?_

And then, suddenly, Tsukiyume and Garou-Kagome were screaming together as one.

* * *

**Ah yes, I know you hate me. ;-) I haven't seen many people reviewing. I've been updating and working like crazy but so far nothing. Am I being punished? (not that I don't blame you...) I hope this lives up to your expectations. I'M BACK!**


	32. The Unhappy Homecoming

**A/N: **And I return here too! Go me! A note to all of you that are more educated than I am. I know NOTHING about exorcisms anywhere. NOTHING. I faked it.

**Disclaimer: Nope don't own them. BUT Shimofuri, Taikokajin, Tsukiyume and Sasugainu and such are mine.  
**

* * *

** Chapter Summary:** Last chapter **Shimofuri** saw that his mother, **Taikokajin** was dying after **Kagome** attacked her and escaped from the castle where she was being held. Another inuyoukai lord, a relative to both Taikokajin and Shimofuri, **Nishiyori** is waging a little war to take over the Middle Lands for himself. **Sasugainu,** Shimofuri's uncle, Taikokajin's younger brother, is there helping out in the transition between rulers as Shimofuri replaces his mother. Taikokajin has asked that she is not put out of her misery until she sees **Tsukiyume** safely returned home.** Inuyasha** and Tsukiyume were heading back to Taikokajin's castle when they scented **Kagome**. Kagome attacked them but Tsukiyume stopped the attack. **Koinu** has been kept safe by Kagome all this time despite the demon manifestation(**Garou refuses to die like a normal critter)**.

* * *

**The Unhappy Homecoming**

Inuyasha leapt out from his hiding place, rushing toward the screams. Kagome's cries acted most strongly on his psyche, and without realizing it he'd charged out on the offensive, preparing to slash down whatever threatened his mate. But what he found, as he rounded the rocky embankment and saw the scene clearly in the thin, dappled moonlight, was Kagome's form crouched over the fallen Tsukiyume. Her hands were wrapped around the hanyou girl's throat, seemingly about to squeeze the life out of her.

The scream from Tsukiyume changed, fading and growing quiet until it was almost more of a humming sound. At first Inuyasha thought that she was dying, suffocated, but as he stepped forward, trying to find some way to knock his deranged mate free of the innocent girl, Tsuki spoke up, stopping his approach.

"Don't separate us."

He stared, scowling and tense. Kagome's scream died the same as Tsukiyume's had, growing fainter and thinner until at last there was no sound at all. But as well as shrinking the scream had also changed pitch, from the deeper, gravelly sound of Garou's possession, to the higher, smoother sound of Kagome's cry.

That change made Inuyasha step forward again, grinding his teeth with frustration. Koinu whimpered in his arms and flattened his tiny white ears.

"What the hell…" the growl came out strangled and furious, hardly understandable as words at all. Neither seemed to be in pain, and neither seemed to be winning. In the dark Inuyasha couldn't see the shine of their eyes, for all he knew they might've turned to stone except that he could hear their breathing.

And then Kagome slumped forward like a rag doll and he felt his stomach lurch into his throat. "Kagome!"

"Inuyasha—don't—" it was Tsukiyume, buried underneath Kagome's lifeless, limp weight. She struggled, trying to crawl out but Inuyasha reached them first and grabbed at the hanyou girl with one arm. The other arm held Koinu, who'd begun a first few tentative squalls now that he sensed the end of immediate danger.

Tsukiyume cringed, cowering wordlessly, but the blows and punishment she expected never came. Inuyasha had tossed her aside and squatted alongside Kagome's body instead, as if Tsukiyume didn't even exist. He hesitantly reached out to touch her face, ears straining for the sound of a breath…

When his fingers made contact they crackled, meeting a barrier of bluish energy. It stung, making him hiss with surprise and withdraw. He stared then, watching the rise and fall of her chest until he was satisfied that she was merely unconscious and not dying or in pain. Then, with a slowness that belied the rage Tsukiyume could feel just beneath the surface, the hanyou turned to regard her.

"What did you do to her?" each word was said slowly, heavily punctuated with emotion. Through the dark Tsukiyume could see his ears flatten, amber eyes alight from within.

"I let it touch me…"

Inuyasha's face broke out into a snarl. "What did you _do_ to her! This is magic, it's…"

"It's a barrier, to keep her unconscious, under control. She'd—the thing _in her_—was going to kill us!" she stammered, blinking, "I had to do it!" she gulped, nervously, tense.

How could she tell him that the voice inside her head, her father's spirit, had stepped into the picture again, instructing her to let the possessed woman grab hold of her? She prayed that her father's spirit had spared the possessed woman but couldn't be certain. She was merely a vassal for it, the living source. As a hanyou the spiritual powers that coursed in her veins from her father were foreign and dormant. They might never have existed but for the fact that she'd used them to save herself—and Inuyasha and Shimofuri—several times.

Inuyasha growled, low and threatening, but he appeared to lose interest in her, shifting slightly to cuddle the crying Koinu. For a moment Tsukiyume didn't move, physically she was frozen, mentally she was running her brain into overtime, desperate to think of something that might placate the hanyou and set her free of blame. She wanted to ask if his mate was unharmed, but was afraid of what the answer might be.

At last she blurted, "Take her to a demon exorcist, a priest…"

The hanyou's ears swiveled, tuning into her words, but he didn't turn his attention from Koinu. The baby was whimpering still but beginning to calm under his father's care. When Koinu had finally quieted Inuyasha muttered an answer that Tsukiyume barely made out: "If she dies, so do you."

Her heart thundered in her head, seeming to ricochet between her skull bones. Her ears folded backward, belying her fear. "I-I understand." She searched for her diplomatic training, for the stoic inuyoukai that Shimofuri had tried to teach her as a pup. "That was in the agreement originally, cousin. My safety in exchange for hers. You don't even need to ask it."

Inuyasha said nothing, only Koinu made the tiny blubbering sounds of a baby becoming a toddler, squirming uncertainly in his father's arms. Though he didn't look at her, Tsuki knew that her cousin was still deeply conflicted with their situation, by what might lie ahead of them. He both wanted to kill her already for what had happened, and at once he wanted to send her away to spare her. Instead of lash out with blind anger or frustration, Inuyasha turned his energy on Koinu with a slow, deliberate care.

He opened his haori and the cream-white undershirt beneath it, exposing his bare chest to the night air, and tucked Koinu inside. Gentle, but powerful fingers tied off the undershirt and then the haori, securing Koinu close to his father's skin where he was protected and warmed.

Finally Inuyasha returned to where Kagome's body was still lying, prone and unmoving on the ground. He knelt and touched her, again receiving a slight shock and a crackle of blue energy. This time, however, he ignored it and scooped her up, tucking her across his shoulders carefully, taking her weight like a sandbag or a load of rice.

He twisted around and at last looked at her. "Get up," he grunted, "We've got a long way to go."

* * *

It was true that Shimofuri had sat at the head of the room for uncountable years, listening to the meetings between the great lords who ruled the Middle Lands, and sometimes other lords and ladies from even farther away, from other islands of Japan or even the mainland. His mother had once been a sort of curiosity. Other lords came to bid their respect to her just to witness her. Who had ever heard of a woman ruling over a whole territory, as his mother did? And even better, who had ever seen an _albino _woman do it? 

Perhaps that was why she had gone for so long in relative peace. The Middle Lands were notoriously racked by war. No one had believed that a woman could rule successfully over it. If male inuyoukai couldn't manage it, certainly a female would do no better.

They had Taikokajin married off swiftly, almost the very day her father, Shimofuri's grandfather, had died and left his last wishes—one of them being that his daughter replace him as ruler of the territory, _not_ his son Sasugainu. By all accounts Haiseishoku was a fine mate and father, but he was also a firm ruler. Taikokajin had had to step back in her role as ruler and instead appear as a distant, serene lady, a thing only of beauty.

She rejected that role shortly after Shimofuri's birth and the household had gone wild. If there was one thing Taikokajin was, it was not a thoughtless thing; she was a creature of cunning and cruelty. She was as ruthless as any man, perhaps more so.

But that nature had, perhaps, been the thing to drive her mad. Neither of her children exhibited the same harshness, the same unstoppable cunning. Tsukiyume was a timid court lady, her only fault in it being that she was a hanyou and therefore too low to be a bargaining tool through marriage. Shimofuri, meanwhile, had always been known for a calm, gentle disposition.

Nishiyori believed that the young heir would not be able to hold the Middle Lands together. Taikokajin's lands would fall to him, and with it the whole territory.

Shimofuri's head was spinning with all of this and more as he sat with his uncle at his side, listening to his generals report in. They were samurai mostly, sprung up out of farming communities to serve the warlord that controlled their land. This one was his mother's favorite, a man with the family name that Shimofuri had seen several generations of.

The news he delivered was rather bleak. Nishiyori's armies had overtaken many of the border villages, pillaging them and burning the homes to the ground. Shimofuri's hesitation in sending out his mother's armies was proving costly. He tried to keep the uncertainty and fear from revealing itself on his face.

"His armies are larger than ours?" Shimofuri finally asked.

The samurai nodded, ducking his head. "Yes, Shishi-sama. Alone Nishiyori's are larger than ours. His province has done better than ours for several years, but he mislead Lady Taikokajin and built this force up in secret."

Shimofuri scowled. "My mother should have foreseen this." It was improper to mention his mother in such a way, but the young lord couldn't help the slight resentment that was growing within him. The mess Taikokajin had left behind would destroy him.

"My armies are at your disposal, Nephew." Sasugainu offered at his side, gently.

"Thank you, Uncle." He was unable to restrain the relief he felt at that offer. He gestured to the samurai, "Defend our lands but do not provoke Nishiyori. This is a battle he started, not us. We will show our fairness to the people."

"Forgive me lord," the samurai cleared his throat nervously. He was very young, Shimofuri thought, and he wondered what had brought the man into this high position so young. "They will see it only as weakness. We must squash them."

Shimofuri senses Sasugainu nodding slightly at his side, but the young demon scowled, irritated with them. "It is not the people that brought on this conflict. Nishiyori uses them. They will respect that we do not destroy them but think before we act with violence. They must continue to prosper—when this is over we will draw heavily on their wealth. Only Nishiyori and his heirs must suffer for this act."

It was an unusual idea to the samurai, and Sasugainu was in favor of swift, decisive violence, but it made sense to them both. Taikokajin had been an unusual ruler. Why would her son prove to be mundane?

The samurai left with his orders, plunging the meeting room into thick silence. Shimofuri feared what his uncle would have to say about his decisions. At long last he sensed movement from Sasugainu, a tiny nod of his head.

"You are Haiseishoku's son."

Shimofuri blinked, surprised at his uncle's words. He turned slightly, gazing at Sasugainu with one steel-gray eye. "Why do you say that?" he wasn't sure whether to be honored or furious with his uncle for not saying he was his mother's son instead, considering that she had been the previous ruler.

There was a small smile on Sasugainu's face as he answered, "Haiseishoku was of a gentle disposition, as are you. His decisions for the Middle Lands always sided with peace and the preservation of prosperity. Lady Taikokajin would not have agreed with your decision."

Shimofuri looked away, staring ahead into the sliding doors, his face impassive. "Tell me what the scouts have said about Tsukiyume."

"They can't find her." Sasugainu answered.

"What does that mean? Is she in Nishiyori's possession? Has our cousin Inuyasha killed her perhaps?" he was proud that his voice revealed nothing of the anxiety he was feeling at any of those possibilities.

"It means she is missing, Shishi-sama, though I believe that if Nishiyori had her he would let you know it." He took a small, quiet breath, revealing a little of his own inward emotion, "You cannot wait for answers, Nephew. You must take Lady Taikokajin's life and begin your reign in her stead."

Shimofuri pinched his lips tightly together and rose serenely from his sitting position. He walked for the exit, a gold-leafed sliding door. "There is still time."

He slid the door open and passed through it, silent as a wraith.

Alone, Sasugainu scowled, grief clouded his face. The empty room was the only witness to his mourning.

* * *

It was midmorning when Sango decided to take her nap. Kasai was sleepy, her head bobbing and nodding as she fought her own fatigue, trying to stay awake where she was playing on the floor. Her brothers, Tisoki and Kohimu, were outside throwing snowballs at one another in the yard. The cherry trees in Kagome and Inuyasha's gardens were beginning to blossom, and yet the night before it had been snowing. 

The chill in the house made Sango's scars ache. It was the complaint of an old woman, but Sango did not yet feel old. There were too many things left to be done before she could officially complain about feeling old. She was often envious of Kagome and Inuyasha, the couple maintained a more youthful air and appearance. Whether that was because they only had one son to worry over or because they were mates to one another and Inuyasha's lifespan as a hanyou was longer than a normal human's, Sango could never say.

She set braziers burning in most of the rooms and invaded Kagome's closet—though she did so reluctantly—and snatched out the heavier brocade kimono jackets.

Miroku arrived back from the village early—he'd gone out to acquire a few sacks of rice and a few fish that weren't rotten from the market. He was always astonished at how large Kaede's old village was becoming. He brought Sango skin creams and perfumes for her hair, a sweet surprise. Sango would have bathed with them right at that instant, just to banish the feeling that three children were aging her prematurely, but then Kasai started screaming irritably with exhaustion.

At the same moment there was a screech of pain from somewhere outside in the gardens, followed by shouts of, "Mom!"

Miroku smiled pityingly at his wife and then heaved a sigh. "I'll keep the boys busy if you'll take care of Kasai." He peeked at the screaming child on the floor and knew at once that she was tired. He lifted his eyebrows at her. "To bed perhaps, lovely Sango?"

Somewhere she found the energy to still feel desire for him, despite the demands of their lives as parents. She smiled and reached out one hand to touch his face, his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Only if you'll come in to keep me company later…"

Miroku grinned and pulled her close, as if to kiss her. His right hand, however, got the better of him. Sango squeaked and pushed him away, but she was laughing. "Later." Miroku promised her, winking.

"Later." She returned, and then they parted ways, Miroku slipping out onto the verandah to face the screaming boys in the gardens and Sango scooping the exhausted and cranky Kasai up off the floor and moving down the hallway toward the guest room that she and Miroku shared.

A brazier stood in one corner, the coals had mostly diminished, leaving the room dark but warm. Sango slipped into the bed with her little daughter, cuddling Kasai close and humming to her until moments later the child was fast asleep and drooling on Sango's chest.

Ah, the joys of motherhood.

Sleep claimed Sango soon after and she found herself falling into a dream where there was a great commotion outside. The boys were shocked, crying. Miroku was startled nearly out of his wits…

"_Sango!" "Mom! Mom!" "Mommy! Momma!"_

Cold, wet hands gripped her shoulder and Sango gasped, jerking awake. Kasai started to blubber with the beginnings of a good cry where she still lied on her mother's chest. The room was even dimmer than before, the coals had likely faded completely and the high light of the afternoon had also faded away.

It was both Kohimu and Tisoki that had woken her. Their noses and cheeks were rosy from the chill outside. Tisoki stood to one side form his older brother, crying in loud childish sobs. Kohimu, meanwhile, already trying to grow into a man, was stone-faced.

"Mom—Uncle Inuyasha and Aunt Kagome are back."

That was the last thing Sango had expected to hear. She sprang out of the bed, still clutching the crying Kasai close to her. She might've asked why this didn't seem to be a happy event but something in her gut, a twisting, snaking instinct, kept her from wasting any further time with questions. Gently she prodded Kohimu and Tisoki out of the room. They charged ahead of her down the hallway, unrestrained even indoors.

"Miroku!" she called, searching frantically for her husband. "Where—"

The monk appeared from the sitting room, holding Kagome's limp, dirtied form in his arms. Sango stopped where she was, gasping. "Kagome!"

Kasai started to squall then, loudly. The whole world seemed to be turning upside down. Sango watched with wide, shocked eyes as Miroku passed by her wordlessly, his expression grim and fierce. She bounced Kasai in her arms to try and stop the baby from crying while her eyes roved past her husband, seeking Inuyasha.

The half-demon also appeared from the sitting room, cheeks and nose bright red from the cold outside. Kohimu and Tisoki, who'd run ahead as if to greet Inuyasha, stopped dead and pulled back. Tisoki started to cry loudly again.

It was with a slow alarm that Sango realized why her sons were so afraid of the hanyou—it was because this was _not_ Inuyasha, this was another dog-eared hanyou. The silhouette with the ears atop the head had fooled Sango's eyes at first, but now she saw that this creature was female and wearing brown and gray robes. Her hair was also long and black. Only the dog ears were the same, white and swiveling atop her head. Her eyes were an unusual brown, almost orange…

Sango froze. "Who are you?"

The hanyou—only a girl Sango realized—also stopped. Her ears flattened downward, much as Inuyasha's did when he was upset. "I'm—"

She never finished before another hanyou—this one actually was Inuyasha—rushed in and around her, bumping her aside harshly. "Watch her, Sango. If she tries to run, kill her."

Sango barely had a second to register his words as well as his presence. He was as usual clad in his red robes, which were a little dingy and dirty, and also they were bulbous. He looked lumpy. Only when Sango heard the lump in his haori cough did she realize that it was in fact Koinu, hidden and protected by his father.

Inuyasha disappeared, heading down the hallway after Miroku and Kagome. Shippo hovered in the sitting room, seemingly afraid to pass by the female hanyou. He stared at her backsides, green eyes wide and frightened, his ears plastered tight against his skull.

Sango looked between her sons and the new hanyou female. Tisoki was still crying with fear at the bizarre twist the day had taken, Kohimu was staring with a frown at the stranger, as if ready to fight her himself. She couldn't help but feel a slight pride at that—someday Kohimu would make an excellent demon slayer.

Kasai was still screaming. Sango rocked her daughter in her arms, trying to calm her. She realized, as she worked, that the hanyou girl was staring at her. When Sango returned her gaze the girl flinched away uncertainly.

"I'm a hostage." She stuttered, "My mother—Lady Taikokajin…"

Sango remembered the strange albino inuyoukai that had come while Inuyasha was away for the first time, frightening their whole family with her surprise visit. The girl looked as if she was trying to be brave and honorable, but when she spoke her voice shook with uncertainty.

"My name is Tsukiyume." She nodded forward a little, giving Sango a small bow. Her orange-colored eyes roved over Sango's form, sizing her up. The hanyou girl looked weak and frail herself, but Sango knew that with Kasai in her arms, and bundled up in Kagome's brocade robes she didn't look very impressive herself. She almost snorted, thinking, _I look like a spoiled housewife._

She felt a pang of regret that she hadn't killed a demon in months…her muscles were still strong, lifting a child many times a day saw to that, but it had been ages since she'd handled Hiraikotsu…

"I'm Sango." She replied swift and cold. "Tell me, what's happened to Kagome?"

Tsukiyume swallowed and looked distinctly nervous. "Well…"

* * *

Kagome's face was twisted with pain as she slept. Miroku had spread her out over their shared bed—how Inuyasha had missed it! But this was not the homecoming he had imagined, not by far. His stomach twisted with worry for Kagome, even as Koinu whimpered and pawed at Inuyasha's flat washboard stomach, reaching up towards non-existent breasts, seeking milk. 

Desperation played faintly at the edges of Inuyasha's mind. "Talk, Miroku."

The monk was crouched at the bedside, his face expressionless. The room was cold and dark, unused for months because of Inuyasha and Kagome's absence. "There is a dark energy within her…"

Inuyasha shifted uneasily, "Can you get rid of it? Did you ever really have any kind of power?" he demanded.

Miroku's shoulders stiffened but he made no response. Cautiously he reached forward until his fingertips grazed Kagome's forehead. Unlike Inuyasha, Miroku could touch Kagome without encountering resistance. "Someone has placed this barrier around her, I can feel it." he turned to look at the hanyou over his shoulder, "What is she like while she's awake, Inuyasha?"

He scowled and, as if remembering, pulled Koinu a little closer and tighter to his body. "She was trying to kill us—_it_ was trying…"

"You know what possesses her?" the monk's dark eyebrows shot upwards.

Inuyasha nodded slowly, ears folding backwards. "It's the thing, the demon the pink-eyed bitch sent me to hunt down." He frowned, "She double-crossed us, Miroku. She captured Kagome when she came back through the well and then she held her hostage." The hanyou's expression was one of misery. "She's been sick like this for a long time. I'm not sure how but—the thing, it got a hold on her soul."

Miroku's face was still expressionless, but as he looked back at Kagome's seemingly relaxed, sleeping form, he at last sighed, shoulders sagging. "I am familiar with the barrier spell. I can re-erect it if the exorcism fails; to keep her and all of us safe."

Inuyasha growled, "You had better not fail…"

The monk scowled. "I have limits, Inuyasha. This task may take a temple leader, a Shinto priest…the power that has possessed her; it is like nothing I've felt before…"

Koinu squirmed and then started to cry. He smelled of hunger and stale urine. Inuyasha's ears fell backward again and this time stayed there with distress. "Do what you can."

"I'm going to need sutras." Miroku started, without taking his eyes from Kagome, "Lots of sutras. And ink."

The hanyou vanished out the door before Miroku could say any more. He ran into Sango, still obediently watching after Tsuki. The two women were sizing one another up, wondering warily what their choices were and if killing the other were plausible. Inuyasha had no doubts in Sango's ability, but Kasai would hold her down.

"Kohimu, Tisoki, Shippo." He barked. The boys and the kitsune leapt to attention, coming to stand before him like privates in the army. To Tisoki and Shippo he said, "Hold Kasai for Sango, get her to sleep." Wordlessly, though Tisoki was still crying softly, the little boy and the kitsune tugged on his Sango's arm and took Kasai from her, then vanished down the hallway to try and put the baby to sleep.

"Kohimu," he met the older boy's eye and was startled to see how handsome the child was becoming, growing into a young male version of his mother already. "Run into the village and bring sutra paper, brushes and ink."

"What about money?"

_Damn, _Inuyasha cursed inwardly and outwardly he growled, "Tell them it's for me! Go!"

Kohimu ran off hurriedly, but not before throwing Tsukiyume a last suspicious glare. Somehow, through his worry and near-panic, Inuyasha felt a second of amusement at the boy. Sango and Miroku had to be so proud…

His own son squealed again, unhappily. Inuyasha might've handed Koinu off to Sango to let her deal with him, but after the ordeal he'd been through, Inuyasha wasn't ready to let his son leave his presence for some time yet. So he left Sango in charge of Tsuki again and hurried off to change Koinu's fouled clothing.

When he had finished he rejoined Miroku only to see that the monk had tied Kagome up while he'd been gone. His mate's ankles were bound, her knees, wrists, and elbows. There was even a rope around her neck that was secured to a heavy wooden dresser.

"What the hell—Miroku!" he moved forward as if to free her but Miroku's hand shot out, stopping him in his tracks.

"She will be violent when the seal is broken. I need her restrained and bound." He turned round to stare at Inuyasha and his eyes locked onto the lump where Koinu was still sheltered in his father's robes. "Tell me, Inuyasha, how does she react to Koinu?"

"She won't hurt him. She wanted to kill me but she wouldn't hurt him." he swallowed uncertainly. "Does that mean she's…?"

"She is still herself below the manifestation. Where are the things I need?"

"I sent Kohimu."

Miroku smiled faintly, nodding. "He'll get them."

On the bed Kagome moaned, tensing against the knotted robes about her body. She mumbled a word.

"What did she say?" Miroku asked, his merely human ears couldn't make it out.

"She's calling for Koinu." And indeed, supporting Inuyasha's observation, Koinu started to squirm and reach out from his father's haori, pawing through the air, searching for his mother.

It left no doubt in either the monk or the hanyou that Kagome was still in her own right mind, somewhere inside her.

A few moments later Kohimu burst into the room, panting and with rosy cheeks. "Father," he gasped and fell onto his knees alongside Miroku, "Here." In his arms he was carrying a thick pad of paper, stretched long for the copying of sutras, spells and charms. Also clasped in his hands were a delicate brush and an inkwell.

Miroku thanked him and then immediately set out to work. Kohimu and Inuyasha watched tensely. He wetted the ink, rubbing it into the brush, and then began to write in a careful, free-flowing, scrawled calligraphy. He brought the words out of thin air, from his memories and long years of training. His lips moved as he repeated the words he was painting onto the paper.

When the first seal was made, Miroku pulled it slowly free from the others and moved it over Kagome's still body. He mumbled a word and then dropped it onto her. There was no sign that anything had worked, but Miroku didn't appear bothered by that. He set to work copying more words onto the sutra paper.

"What did you do?" Inuyasha demanded.

"That was a spell to make the rope bonds strong and unbreakable. When she struggles it will be useless now, no matter what power the manifestation gives her." he glanced at his son, as if aware for the first time that Kohimu had not yet left his side. "I don't want you in here."

"But father—" Kohimu started, flustered and fascinated by his father's knowledge, so rarely demonstrated in the present day.

"There is no argument. This is dangerous. Take care of your mother for me, Kohimu."

Though the boy scowled unhappily he nodded and disappeared out the door.

The next sutra seemed to take longer but at last it was also finished. Miroku blew on the ink a little, encouraging it to dry. Inuyasha recognized it as a stall tactic. Miroku was nervous.

"What's this one do?"

Miroku hesitated again, holding the sutra over Kagome's prone body. "This one will break the seal and allow her to waken." For a moment he appeared he would drop the thing on the sleeping miko, but then he twisted back to look at Inuyasha and asked, "Are you ready?"

Inuyasha shifted, placing one arm protectively over his belly where Koinu was still tucked into his haori. "Do it already…" but his golden eyes never left Kagome, fixated on her nervously, afraid that something might go wrong…

Miroku dropped the paper. It seemed to float down in slow motion. It landed and stuck onto her shoulder, and this time there was a white glow from the paper, illuminating the words Miroku had painted onto the paper. When the glow had ceased Kagome jerked, throwing her weight against her restraints. They held and the first paper that Miroku had made glowed now as well, apparently activating when she struggled.

The wet sheen of her eyes flickered; she was searching the room, gaining an understanding of her surroundings. She saw Miroku first and made a hissing noise that was not human. Her eyes were dark, too dark even in the dim, gray room.

"_Monk—you dare to think you can restrain me?"_ she laughed with a masculine voice that was very clearly not her own, it drew a shiver of disgust from Inuyasha. That faint movement sent Not-Kagome's eye to him then.

"_You. Hanyou. I offered you a fine bargain. The whelp, he would be immortal…"_

Miroku mumbled something and Kagome snarled, trying to twist away from him. _"You are pathetic!"_ it laughed, _"You think you can scare me from this bitch's body? Think again you fools!"_

Miroku was already putting his brush to another scroll, mumbling the words as he painted them. Not-Kagome twisted her body around, trying to listen to those words. She scoffed and scorned him, calling his attempts futile. But when he lifted the sutra up and over her body the beast cringed and tried to writhe out of the way.

"_Damn you, stupid monk!"_ there was a harsh sound, Kagome drawing in her breath sharply. She was going to spit at Miroku but the monk moved more swiftly than she could. When the sutra hit her she began screaming with both the demon's male voice and with Kagome's own.

"Inuyasha! Help me! He's hurting me!" she shouted, and Inuyasha cringed, scenting her tears, her distress. He took a step forward but Miroku stopped him.

"It's trying to trick you Inuyasha. That's not Kagome. The sutras don't hurt her, they hurt _it."_

Not-Kagome snarled and sneered up at him, though at the same time her face was also twisted with pain and clouded with tears. "He's going to kill me, Inuyasha!" but the effect its plea had was diminished because it finished with several cackles.

Koinu choose that moment to whimper and start pawing at Inuyasha's haori again. Not-Kagome saw the movement and froze, her teary, wet eyes focused completely on the small movement in her mate's clothing. "Koinu…"

The baby squealed in response, recognizing his mother's voice. He made tiny sounds, almost words. He was trying to call her mama.

Kagome's eyes lightened, her head sagged against the bed as tired neck muscles at last gave in. "I'm home." She murmured, sounding astonished. "I'm alive…"

"That's right, Lady Kagome, and surrounded by friends." Miroku spoke calmly, warmly as he peered down at her, but Inuyasha noted that the monk's body was still very stiff.

"Inuyasha," she murmured his name and her fingers flexed. She tried to stretch out her arm toward him but the ropes restraining her body were too much of a hindrance. All movement stopped soon enough and she fell limp again, as if unconscious.

Instinct at last overwhelmed caution and Inuyasha tried to press forward again, calling her name, ears pricked and listening with concern. Miroku made a sharp noise in his throat, like a hiss, and reached out to try and stop Inuyasha but the hanyou was overcome with the need to physically reassure his mate. He pushed Miroku out of the way with a few muffled curses.

He knelt very close to her bedside, almost directly over her. Kagome's eyes were closed, her breathing was slow and even, deep as if she were sleeping.

"Kagome…" he reached out one hand to touch her face tenderly, but as his hand hovered in the air near her head Kagome suddenly stirred, leaping and reaching for him.

Inuyasha jumped backward, shocked, golden eyes wide and horrified. The thing straining against the ropes on the bed was once again Not-Kagome. The eyes were a deep, pitch black, like Miroku's ink before it was painted neatly onto the sutras. And yet despite their intense color her gaze seemed to glow unnaturally. She pressed against the restraints, reaching out toward Inuyasha and Koinu and cackling madly back deeply in her throat.

"_This body is mine! I will never give her up! The monk may rob me of power and he may tie me down but he cannot get rid of me because I refuse to leave! You will only free this poor, pathetic bitch by doing what **I **tell you to, wretched hanyou." _

In the dim grayness of the bedroom—once a place of warmth and security and love for the couple—Inuyasha felt the beginnings of fear tinged with despair wriggling in his guts. The demon manipulated his mate at its own will and Miroku's expression looked particularly grim as he stood at the foot of the bed, contemplating Not-Kagome as she struggled.

Koinu squalled in Inuyasha's haori, upset at the sudden movement his father had made to evade Kagome's possessed grasp. In response to the sound, Not-Kagome relaxed a little and instead focused her energy in staring at the lump in Inuyasha's haori.

"My baby…" she spoke with Kagome's voice, but the eyes were still deep and unnaturally dark. "Give me my baby…"

Inuyasha shifted Koinu, bringing the pup out into the air so that Kagome could see him clearly, but he made no move to return the baby to her. "Koinu's safe, Kagome." He looked toward Miroku, who still hadn't moved since Kagome had sprung, surprising them. "I thought you did this sort of thing all the time, monk." He growled.

"With objects or animals, Inuyasha." Miroku responded, closing his eyes tiredly. "And it's been years since I was trained in such ways."

"You've done it before—then what's the problem?" he remembered Miroku warning him that things might not work, but he refused to believe that Kagome was beyond aid.

"This spirit is the difference. Normally the spirit has other interests and no agenda. When it is blocked and restrained, as I have already done with Lady Kagome, they usually grow bored and leave the body they inhabit behind. This one has an agenda—it won't leave and even if we try to wait it out…"

Inuyasha scowled, "Wait it out?"

"There is one last sutra I have yet to place. That last one restrains the spirit, giving Lady Kagome back control of her body. Leaving several of the sutra spells on Lady Kagome would give essentially block the spirit. Most spirits leave then afterwards, but this spirit would not."

"Then do it." Inuyasha snarled, irritably. Koinu had started squirming and crying in his arms. His tiny fists beat on his father's chest. He stank of hunger. On the bed, lying still and peacefully for the moment, Kagome was staring at Koinu and crying softly.

Miroku sighed, heavily. "You don't understand Inuyasha. It isn't a cure. The spirit won't leave and the sutras can only act to suppress it on _most _levels. Physically it will make her miserable. She will be bedridden, sickly, for the rest of her life. I have seen it before when a person is inhabited in such a way—they suffer and die young."

Inuyasha resisted the urge to start shouting and cursing the monk. And after that urge passed he felt weak, shaky. His arms quivered as they held Koinu. The baby continued to scream, Kagome hadn't stopped crying silently on the bed. Inuyasha wondered how much of it all she understood. Was the monster taking refuge within her cackling somewhere evilly just for her ears alone?

Anger swept over the hanyou again. Without taking his eyes from Kagome he shouted at Miroku, "There must be someone—some stupid monk somewhere—_dammit,_ stupid fucking…"

Miroku pursed his lips and stared at the floor. "I will prepare the last sutra."

"_Damn you! Dammit!"_ Inuyasha stomped his foot and started to pace. Koinu buried his head into his father's shoulder and continued his unheard crying. The tiny white ears were plastered to his head with his distress and growing hunger.

Miroku once again sat at Kagome's bedside and began to wet the ink.

Not-Kagome laughed eerily, in a way that carried both the monster's male and Kagome's soft human female voices. They twisted as one in her throat, sending waves of nausea rushing through Inuyasha's body.

"_Fools, all of you. The monk is right, Inuyasha. A spirit with a vendetta—we cannot be destroyed or banished until we have exacted our revenge."_ Kagome grinned, her white teeth leering sickeningly against her pale, gray skin. _"I will make her suffer, Inuyasha. I will starve her, weaken her. She will survive years without really living, without the strength to leave this bed. She will never play with her whelp; she will never pleasure you again. When she dies at last I will move onto someone else…"_

"You're full of shit." Inuyasha spat, but he felt as if he were about to vomit and his voice shook with weakness.

"_The monk told you I cannot be gotten rid of. You know I speak the truth. You have only one way to save this wretched little bitch and that is to surrender to me…your bitch and the whelp will live…"_

Miroku had finished the last sutra. He stood over Kagome's bedside and lowered the piece of paper towards her face.

Not-Kagome grinned a last time, looking distinctly triumphant. _"Think on it, Inuyasha."_

The sutra touched her skin and flared to life brightly. Inuyasha and Miroku both shielded their eyes against it. Then it faded and left Kagome silent and limp, sleeping deeply. On her forehead was a tiny symbol in fresh ink, the mark of the last sutra working its magic over her for the long term.

Miroku sighed and ran one hand through his black hair. "I've done all that I can."

* * *

_Ah yes, I know, you all hate me. :-) Leave me a message. All Questions and comments are listened to/answered/and appreciated. _


	33. Scorn

**A/N:** I'm worried about this chapter and really ticked cuz the website ate the whole bunch of crap I'd just did to this chapter. :-(. Anyway, I am worried about this chapter b/c I'm afraid IY's outburst at the near-end it too harsh. I'm posting it anyway with that** warning. That and language.** Inuyasha is pretty frustrated. I dunno, write in and tell me if I'm wrong so I cna change it for further readers. **  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own him.  
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**Chapter Review: **Last chapter Tsukiyume stopped Kagome's mad, possessed rampage. Inuyasha and Tsukiyume took her to Miroku, who did as much as he possibly could, which amounted to keeping Kagome in control of her body, but leaving Garou's pesky soul still inside. As a result he is slowly killing her and making he life miserable like he promised. Like a cancer. Shimofuri is worried about his sister, his uncle Sasugainu has sorta given us the impresison that maybe she is dead. Taikokajin is still dying, she's waiting for Tsukiyume to return. Sesshomaru has decided he will support Shimofuri in the civil war against Nishiyori. **  
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**Scorn**

The screen door slid open with a crash, knocked clean off its track by the force of the energy behind the blow that had opened it. Healers and maids stopped as one, staring at the door with widened, frightened eyes. They were all human, employed by rich clan families to tend the sick or old or dying.

The healer woman, a Shinto priestess of some kind, who'd greeted Shimofuri and Sasugainu earlier when they'd visited now scurried over to the door, half-blocking the newcomer's entry. She bowed apologetically, "This room is contaminated by sickness and blood—"

The tall, proud form of a male inuyoukai shouldered uncaringly past her. "Silence."

A few of the maids, knelt solemnly at the bedside of their dying matriarch, scooted forward on their knees, half-bowing. They spoke all at once, trying to convince the unannounced visitor to leave. They had been in the middle, in fact, of wrapping Taikokajin's burned, bleeding and scalded body.

"Shishi-sama, please, Lady Taikokajin is not fit for guests at this time—"

The gray-blue eyes of the young heir narrowed angrily. "Get out."

The Shinto healer again appeared in front of him, bowing. "You cannot see her like this…"

"She's _my mother,_ I'll see her however I wish." Shimofuri snarled and, with little warning, he pushed the healer aside, so forcefully that she stumbled and fell to the floor with a cry.

The bed maids cowered now, seeing his fierceness. They moved away, letting him through, in favor of going to aid the fallen healer. Shimofuri ignored them and moved to his mother's bedside.

She was covered now only by a thin sheet. Small water bowls lied alongside her bed, sponges or clothes draped over the side saturated with water. The servants had been giving her a sponge bath before he'd interrupted them. The water was laced with minerals and herbs, things to hopefully fight infection. Linen bandages were also strewn about here and there, some partially unwound. Taikokajin's arms were spread wide. The crackled, blistered skin there was moist and covered by bandages in places. They had been bathing her arms and rewrapping them…

Slowly Shimofuri worked up the nerve to look at his mother's face. It was bandaged heavily, leaving only the narrow spot for her eyes open. The bandages, white linens before they were wound around her head, were now a wet, sickly gray. The burns covering her skin were weeping, oozing some substance that the bandages absorbed. Whether it was a good or bad sign for his mother Shimofuri couldn't say.

He turned away and looked back at the maids and the healer. "Leave us, get out."

The healer protested, staring him brazenly in the eye. "She has not spoken in hours, shishi-sama. You will get nothing from her! You must leave this room—unless…"

He growled aloud, knowing what she was trying to say. If he'd come to end her life then by all means he was welcome in the room, but if he was there for any other reason and allowing her to live…

"Get out!" he roared, surprising even himself with the fullness and power in his voice.

Even as the healer and the maids cowered at his order, and tried shuffling toward the door obediently, Taikokajin made a gasping sound where she lied on the bed, drawing Shimofuri's attention immediately. He paused, tense, waiting for the maids and the healer to go, running down the hall crying to themselves, before he at last went back to Taikokajin's side.

"_Haiseishoku!"_ she choked his father's name out, frantically. Her arms moved on the bed, trailing half-wound bandages. Her fingertips were bandaged; she touched Shimofuri's face and neck with one of these hands. It made Shimofuri scowl to think that at this moment he would not be able to tell by texture the scrap of the linen bandages from his mother's own scorched flesh.

"It's me," he murmured quietly, "Mother, it's Shimofuri."

Her pink eyes were wide and unseeing in the narrow strip of her face that wasn't bandaged. "Haiseishoku…" she whispered again.

"No, it's Shimofuri." He closed his eyes and pressed his face into her touch, hoping perhaps that she would somehow know him by touch to be different from his long-since dead father.

"You asked to see Tsuki again." he told her, his voice starting to crumble, "The scouts can find no sign of her. She may be dead, Mother. Our cousin, Inuyasha, he might have killed her." Pressure was building behind his closed eyes. "You were so _foolish!_ Mother, why did you bring him into this? Why did keep his mate, his child here? Look what it's done to you—and you haven't even saved Tsukiyume!"

"Haiseishoku!" she said it more loudly this time, her fingers on his face moved with more speed, probing his lips as he spoke, his nose, his eyes.

"This is _Shimofuri,_ Mother, this is _your son…"_ a few shameful tears at last broke out, slipping down his cheeks. His mother's bandaged fingers touched on the moisture, the linens absorbed the moisture. _"Please!"_

Her fingers lost their energy, slipping away from his face to rest momentarily on his shoulder. When she spoke again it was quiet and almost lost in the muffling that the bandages gave her already thin voice. "Haiseishoku…"

Anger twisted and marred Shimofuri's handsome, young face. His chin and lips trembled for a moment as he fought with himself internally, and then finally lost control.

"_You killed him, Mother! You killed Haiseishoku! He's dead, just like you will be soon! Just like everyone in our family is dead because of you!"_

Blindly he slapped his mother's hand away from his shoulder and opened his clouded gray eyes to glare at her helpless, senseless husk of a body. He froze, however, when he saw that her pink gaze was no longer fixed and unseeing, she had focused on him firmly. He stared back at her, as if momentarily their positions had reversed and he was the one on his deathbed, but then he made an involuntary choking sound in his throat and fumbled, searching for her hand again.

"I'm sorry, Mother, so sorry…"

"Forgive me." Taikokajin murmured, faintly. Her eyes slid closed and then opened in slow motion, as if weighed down with a heavy burden. "Haiseishoku."

"I can't forgive you for him." Shimofuri muttered, allowing the bitterness to creep into his voice. "But you have to tell me, Mother. Please. Tell me you will allow me to end your suffering…"

"Tsuki…" Taikokajin moaned her daughter's name; her eyes were wide again, unseeing again.

"She's dead, Mother." Again Shimofuri closed his eyes, his face twisted with anger. "You can't wait for the dead…"

To his shock she answered him. "I can."

Silently, Shimofuri stared at his mother, his chin quivering with grief, his eyes alight with frustration and rage. His tears had vanished at last, suppressed with the darker more acceptable emotion of anger. "Let me release you."

The pink eyes drifted shut. "You cannot."

He gripped her hand in his, hard. His shoulders shook with emotion. "You will suffer then, Mother. You'll suffer this way, humiliate yourself and our family until the sickness from your burns takes you. You'll be mad with fever; you'll thirst and hunger but never be satisfied. The sickness will take you, slowly, and add threefold as much pain to your death as an honorable death…" he dropped his head, almost as if he were praying. "Please, let me do this, let me help you."

He struggled with the pressure behind his eyes, the lump of ice that seemed to choke him in his throat, the writhing, heavy pain in his chest when he thought of her lying as she was as the hours passed, suffering. And yet the thought of killing her, of driving his blade into her, that too sickened him with heartache. No choice was an easy one for him, but he would gladly suffer a little and take the way out that released her from her torture the swiftest…

Her next words froze him once again with shock: "Tsuki will do it."

"Tsuki…?" he stared at her closed eyes, mouth agape with shock. He fought with his shock, his wild emotions—and failed. "Tsuki would not have the strength to do it. And she is _dead!"_

Taikokajin's head moved minutely on the bed, the tiniest fractional movement. "No, she lives."

"The scouts can't find her; there has been no sign of Inuyasha—"

"She lives." Taikokajin insisted. "Find Inuyasha. She is with him."

Shimofuri frowned, withdrawing from his mother slightly. As bizarre as her words sounded, Shimofuri could not disobey her and kill her. Some sons might've believed Taikokajin was insane, babbling deliriously, but Shimofuri, even at his wit's end and at the verge of a mental breakdown himself, could not bring himself to kill her, no matter how crazy she sounded.

Her hand fell limp on the bedspread then, the eyes squeezed tightly shut. She cried out, _"Kokoro!"_

The sound of footsteps reached Shimofuri from the hall. He stiffened and brought one arm up to his face, using the sleeve to wipe away his tears. Carefully, he composed his features into a cold mask. Anger he used as a crutch and let it show through in his gray eyes.

"Shimofuri!" it was his uncle's voice, worried and hurried.

"What do you want?" Shimofuri answered, without turning away from his mother's bedside. He made sure the tone he used was irritated and almost rude.

"Sesshomaru has arrived to see you."

* * *

It was after dusk when Kagome awoke, slowly. Her vision was blurred, her head pounding. She moaned weakly and rolled over, blinking to try and see where she was. There was something that niggled in her mind, something very much not right. When she moved her arms, running them feebly along her own body in an exploratory manner, it dawned on her what that thing was… 

_Koinu wasn't with her._

"Koinu!" she shrieked, pushing herself bolt upright in the dark room. Then she fell back, hissing and crying with the pain that swarmed in her skull. It was everywhere, reaching from the back of her eyes up and over the dome of her head and then down to her neck. When she tried to see through that pain there was nothing but a white blur, she saw stars.

But she could hear a baby crying, her panic eased slightly.

"Kagome?"

The voice was Inuyasha's, she realized, worried and hesitant.

"I'm here—Inuyasha? What's happened? Where are we? Do you have Koinu? Is he hungry?" she frowned at how weak her voice was, how hard it was to say those things, how hard it was to even _think_ clearly through the pain in her head. As she breathed, in and out, in and out, it slowly lessened until it was only a faint ache in her temples.

"We're home." Inuyasha's voice was guarded, that troubled her.

Kagome opened her eyes again, narrowing them and trying to see the room more clearly. He was telling the truth. It was their bedroom, small but still specious. A lacquer dresser in one corner, the smell of some scented candles she'd brought through the well years ago, their shared futon below her tired, aching body.

She grunted with effort, twisting herself around and rolling over again, trying to find the source of Koinu's cries and Inuyasha's voice. When she found him she frowned, troubled. He was sitting as he had while they were hunting Naraku and the Shards of the Shikon Jewel: against a wall, knees drawn up to his chest, honey-colored eyes narrow and brooding. Koinu was perched between his father's knees and his chest, facing Kagome and reaching for her frustratedly with his tiny clawed hands.

"Inuyasha?" she queried, worried. "What's going on…?"

The hanyou's white ears flattened. "You're…sick, Kagome. What do you remember?"

She searched her mind, drawing mostly a blank. At any rate she couldn't think clearly at all with Koinu's screams. She frowned and tried to push herself up to her feet again—only to cry out and fall back to the futon, holding her head.

Koinu's cries rang shrilly in her ears, magnifying her pain several times over. When at last the wave of pain was over she was shivering and sweaty. Nausea rumbled in her stomach. _Inuyasha's right, I am sick…_

But thoughts of herself were still outweighed by Koinu's desperate screaming. She thrust out her arms, "Give him to me!"

From her hanyou there was only silence. She tried to peak at him again and saw that he was staring at her warily. There was a tight set to his jaw that she didn't like. Real fear began to awaken within her. "Inuyasha…?"

"What do you remember?" Inuyasha demanded again. He shifted Koinu, cuddling the pup and stroking him. Koinu's cries quieted slightly.

Kagome took several long, calming breaths, searching her memory. "I remember…Mom. I remember Momma and Gramps and taking Koinu to see them." She smiled into the mattress, sighing with nostalgia for those memories. Somehow, though she couldn't remember anything clearly, she _knew_ that those memories were weeks old, not from a day or two ago as her mind seemed to want to believe…

"Do you remember being attacked?"

Kagome stared at him again through the darkness of the room, but her eyes weren't really seeing him. She was remembering, slowly.

Hojo had come by. She'd tried to hide Koinu's ears from him, but the pup had hated the cap she used. Hojo had seen the ears, remembered Inuyasha…she'd tried to tell him the truth. There'd been a presence in the well house. A strange magic that had called to her. She'd gone to find out what it was and then…

_Something burst out of the well, seeming to fly. It was like a raven or a crow, dark as the nighttime and foul, she could sense death coming not far behind it. There'd been pain in her head, she remembered choking, feeling her feet lifted off the ground, and Koinu's screams, always screaming…_

Her body started to shake involuntarily at the memories. "Yes, I remember..."

Inuyasha's ears drooped where he sat against the wall several feet away. "I wasn't there to save you."

Kagome didn't hear his words; her mind was fast rushing, replacing the memories that had been pushed aside, buried. She'd been living in a dream for so long—she was still at home, sleeping with Koinu, talking with her mother, her brother, or Gramps…but in reality it was a fabrication her mind was forced into when the shadow in the dark had leapt into her body…

_Lying, suffering, dirty, starving, and in pain. Buried beneath white furs that might as well have been her funeral shroud. Koinu was always crying in the background, calling for her, but she was too weak to respond. Then the dark creature had come, circling her like a shark, baiting her. It lied to her, telling her things about Inuyasha and the pink-eyed she-demon—Taikokajin. She could remember fighting Taikokajin, fighting to save herself and Koinu—and then there was the beast in the shadows again, promising to save Koinu, to set her free. She'd refused but it had taken her anyway…_

The pain of that event took hold of her, making Kagome cry out and whimper with shock and fear. Her body quivered, her fists clenched spasmodically. Tiny mewling sounds of agony started in her throat.

Inuyasha called after her, and dimly she heard his feet pound over the floor until he was beside her. His touch on her was hesitant, cautious. And as the pain finally subsided, she was full of a different kind of hurting as she realized what had happened and why Inuyasha was so wary of her…

"I tried to kill you, didn't I?" she choked, letting the tears come. "I'm so sorry, Inuyasha."

His arms at last closed around her, she felt his shuddering sigh, his warm breath. There was infinite comfort and love in his touch, and Kagome was grateful. She clung to him crying softly into the dirty and very familiar red haori.

Koinu was crying, crawling across the floor from where Inuyasha had left his little son by the wall. As Kagome slowly registered his cries another terrible thought gripped her heart, making her chest constrict with horror.

"Did I try to hurt Koinu?" she demanded, grabbing old of Inuyasha's arms and pushing him back, searching for his face.

The hanyou was frowning, but he shook his head slowly in response. "No. He was the one thing you tried to protect."

She sagged, deflating with relief and exhaustion. "Thank you," she whispered, but it was not certain who she was thanking, whether it was Inuyasha or some higher power. "Let me hold him, he must be hungry…"

Inuyasha stiffened at her words and Kagome felt her stomach tighten with dread. She asked, "Inuyasha? Why won't you trust me with our son?"

There was a bit of a pause before he at last heaved a sigh and answered her, "As long as he was with me you couldn't kill me. You didn't want me to have him."

She squeaked, a tiny noise of misery in her throat. "My baby…" she stretched out one arm towards Koinu on the floor and the baby clambered over to her eagerly, reaching out for her.

"He…uh," Inuyasha stammered a little, sounding mildly embarrassed, "Sango tried to feed him but he won't—it didn't work."

Koinu clambered, with a little help from his mother, onto the futon. His crying had ceased but he had only one thing on his mind: food. Kagome tried to sit up once more, this time slowly—but the pain came on nonetheless, stealing her breath and knocking her flat to the futon again. She moaned and writhed through it, holding her head with both hands. Koinu watched her with wide, fearful eyes. After a moment when she didn't recover immediately, he looked to his father and began to howl again.

When the pain had diminished, Kagome was left breathing roughly, shaking. "What's wrong with me…?" she choked on the words, nearly crying.

"You're sick." Inuyasha answered, his voice was deep and cold. When Kagome twisted her head to look at him—slowly so as not to bring on the strange pain—she saw that he was staring ahead with unfocused, angry eyes. There was a lot more that he hadn't told her, she realized.

Although she felt like crying, or perhaps shouting at the hanyou until he explained everything at length and in detail, Koinu came first. She reached out and pulled the pup close to her. Without sitting up she brought Koinu onto her stomach—only to nearly drop him out of her weak fingers.

Despair might've been the reaction one would've expected from the young mother, but instead of giving in as she stared at her shaking fingers and hands, Kagome cursed with anger. _"Dammit!"_

This seemed to at last draw Inuyasha out of whatever strange mood he'd been in. The hanyou reached for Kagome's clothes—they were filthy, torn, bloodied, ragged—and he started to rip them off her. At first Kagome squeaked, a little surprised, but as she her eyes focused on the clothes she realized that they weren't hers. She tried to remember how she'd gotten them but her mind drew a blank.

Koinu needed no encouragement or help for that matter when he saw what had finally, _finally_ been exposed. He nuzzled into his mother and immediately began to nurse. Kagome touched his tiny ears, examined his hands and feet. As she stroked his hair the pup made eye contact with her and his ears perked up, coming to attention. He stretched a little, reaching for her face while he suckled. She offered him one of her fingers to hold and he took it, squeezing with surprising strength.

Inuyasha left her side momentarily, tossing aside the ripped and dirtied clothes he'd stripped off of Kagome's body and digging out a winter blanket to throw over them. His expression softened at last as he watched his wife and son interact normally, but when he scented Kagome's tears again his ears turned backward unhappily.

"Pain again?" he asked, frowning.

She shook her head—slowly he noticed with a pang of concern. Whether she admitted it or not she was always in pain…would always be in pain…

"I'm not normal yet, am I?" she asked, meeting his amber eyes with tears in her own warm brown.

His ears drooped hopelessly, but when he spoke it was with anger. "That damned thing—it won't _die!"_

Kagome's eyes were glazed, reliving a memory. "The thing in the dark, the thing that took over me…" her voice choked a little and grew weaker as she finished her thought, "The thing that made me try to kill you."

Inuyasha scoffed, trying to make her feel better. "I'm fine. It's gonna take more than that to kill me." He hazarded a grin, revealing his fangs glittering dimly, "You were hardly trying Kagome!"

She tried to laugh but it sounded more like a choked sob. "How did you…?"

He scowled. "The hanyou girl—the pink bitch's daughter—she stopped you. We brought you here then and Miroku put some spells on you…but—" he broke off, looking away. His face was remarkably stony in that moment, frightening Kagome, until she made out the tiny quivering in his chin, some sign of his grief.

"Inuyasha? What is it?" she knew from his demeanor, from some unspoken signal, that whatever was still wrong with her—it was a great distress to him. That meant it was serious. The pain would never go away. Perhaps it would even get worse.

"It isn't really gone yet." He blustered, reacting again with anger. "Stupid fucker!" but when he looked back at her his eyes were too bright. And in that moment she knew that whatever was wrong with her, Inuyasha had been told it was fatal and he believed it. "We'll find a way—don't look at me like that!"

Despite his harsh tone, Kagome smiled, though she was still crying. "I know you will, Inuyasha. I know you will."

* * *

The household suffered from a chilly atmosphere. It especially didn't help that the night outside was miserable and cold. Wind shook the screens, invading every crack to make the occupants shiver. 

Kohimu and Tisoki huddled together with Shippo, watching the adults with wide, concerned eyes. Tisoki had finally managed to contain his crying, but he appeared always at the edge of erupting into tears again. Kohimu and Shippo were the most focused, listening intently to the troubled adults.

Kasai, barely old enough to walk, was toddling about near Sango who watched her daughter carefully while her ears were tuned entirely to Inuyasha and Miroku's conversation. Their "hostage" the hanyou girl Tsukiyume, sat opposite Sango. Her hands were folded into her lap and she stared resolutely at them, scowling.

"She's awake?" Miroku was asking Inuyasha, quietly.

"Yeah—and she's in pain. She can't even sit up in bed." The hanyou's ears were tucked tightly on his head, his mouth set in a frown and his eyes weren't truly seeing, they were glazed and troubled.

"You left Koinu with her." Miroku observed aloud.

Sango turned her head at that. "Is he nursing?"

Inuyasha nodded. "Koinu's fine. Even the thing didn't want to hurt Koinu." He frowned, trying to understand why that was. Had it just been the deal he had half-struck with Kagome? Inhabitation of her body in trade for Koinu's survival and wellbeing? Or was there more? He knew Garou wanted him dead and it fed on hanyous. Taikokajin had originally told him that Garou was after them because a prophecy had foretold that a hanyou from Inutaisho's line would be the one to kill him, but Inuyasha had long since concluded that to be a lie.

Tsukiyume cleared her throat then, timidly. All eyes turned to her, with the exception of Kasai who was gnawing on the small, wooden leg of the table in the sitting room.

"The demon that possessed her was looking for the impossible—a male inuhanyou. To make it even more impossible he was looking for one that was from a specific clan—_our_ clan, Inutaisho's line." She turned her orange eyes toward Inuyasha and her own white dog ears flicked uncertainly. "Male hanyou are very, very rare. They almost always die before they are born or just after. But he had his chance—he still has it, he won't give up."

Inuyasha began cursing colorfully for a moment so Miroku asked, "Why does he need a male inuhanyou?"

"And why the fuck does he keep telling me I can make Koinu immortal?" Inuyasha snarled, scowling.

Tsuki stared at her hands in her lap again. "It wouldn't be Koinu that was immortal. Koinu's soul is young, he would push it out of his body and take it for his own." She looked at Inuyasha squarely, without expression, "He is probably the only child of a male inuhanyou ever to exist. That uniqueness would draw Garou to the child as his next host."

"Like hell!" Inuyasha shouted, and at once began to pace, muttering to himself.

"Why has he done all of this? And…" Sango scowled, "How do you know this?"

"He is cursed, his whole kind are cursed. The animals they represent no longer walk this world." She shuddered and looked away, suddenly appearing very small and fragile. "He survived by stealing the souls of hanyous. I would've been one of those if my mother and brother hadn't come after me—that's how I know. To break the curse he needs Inuyasha or his child. And now that we've destroyed his original body he'll take Koinu as his new host…" she started to shiver and blinked rapidly, fighting tears of remembered horror. "I've seen the inside of his mind…"

"How the hell do we get rid of this bastard?" Inuyasha demanded, staring pointedly at Tsuki. "You've helped before…" he challenged her silently with his eyes.

Tsukiyume turned her face away, her voice shook a little. "I am merely a tool for my father's spirit. He was a powerful monk named Kokoro." She sighed, "I was visiting his grave when that _thing_ took me. His spirit has traveled with me ever since, stepping in to help. I have no control over it."

She shifted and faced Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha now more directly. "I must go home soon, please." Her eyes were full of tears, "Lord Sesshomaru gave us the message we were to bring to Shimofuri—and Mother, he said she was dying…"

Although Miroku and Sango all looked sympathetic, Inuyasha had no pity. He pinned Tsukiyume with a hard, firm gaze. "Tough."

Sango and Miroku both frowned but they made no move to object just yet. Inuyasha saw their expressions and his ears flattened, his face twisted into a dangerous, bitter snarl. "My mother was murdered in front of me, _Tsukiyume,_" he spat, "And she was killed _because_ she was _my_ _mother_. And now my mate is dying and it's _your mother's fault. _So you know what? I don't give a _fuck._"

Tsukiyume flinched at his words, biting her lip and staring into her lap. She made no sound but tears fell into her lap and her shoulders shook slightly.

Silence reigned in the room, thick and heavy. The children were the first to break it with Tisoki making a choked sound in the back of his throat. Shippo wore an unusually hard expression on his face, staring between Tsuki and Inuyasha. Kohimu was staring at the floor, his warm brown eyes, just like Sango's, were sad and grief stricken.

On the floor Kasai sat up clumsily and a little too fast, slamming her head into the underside of the table. She fell over and at once began to bawl. Sango reached for her daughter and scooped her into her lap, shushing her.

Miroku sighed, burying his face in his hands. "Inuyasha?"

"What?" the hanyou snapped, clearly still in a vicious, cruel mood.

"It is wrong to blame this girl…"

Sango looked up from her screaming child, nodding her agreement. "Miroku's right, Inuyasha. Blaming her will do nothing to help anyone."

Tsukiyume stayed like a statue, frozen. Only the occasional careening teardrop, shining like a jewel, revealed that she still lived.

Snarling, Inuyasha turned his back on all of them. "Fuck it." he muttered and stomped off, heading for the bedroom where he'd left Kagome and Koinu. He was too angry, too bitter, too helpless to think clearly. Tsukiyume was not to blame, but in his rage she was a symbol, a target. And he was desperate, hoping above all else that she would suddenly step forward, possessed creepily again by her father's spirit, and cure Kagome.

So far it hadn't been happening.

Sango pushed herself up off the floor, still holding Kasai. She looked pointedly at the other children, Kohimu, Tisoki and Shippo and sighed. It was a shame, she thought, that they were introduced so young to such terrible things, such terrible words…

"Time for us to go to sleep." She ordered them. As she passed Miroku she touched his cheek, a small sign of her love and affection, and then she and the children were gone, leaving Miroku sitting with the hanyou girl in the sitting room. The wind howled outside fitfully, rattling the roof tiles and the screens on the windows.

Finally Miroku sighed. His violet eyes were dark and troubled. "You can stay here tonight, if you wish—or you can leave right away. The decision is yours."

Tsukiyume's ears drooped. She spoke in a tiny, childlike voice. "I'll stay here."

"You don't have to, Inuyasha is just…not in is right mind this night. Go to your family." He tried to smile at her, to offer her something other than unfriendliness. "It's the right thing to do, and you're not a hostage here."

Tsukiyume's shoulders slumped even lower, pathetically. "I don't know the way home." She whimpered.

Miroku once again covered his face with his hands. _Oh no…_

* * *

_So here we are finished again. Was IY's outburst too extreme or OOC? Consider his situation and stress level and get back to me if it seems wrong. _

_We are nearing the end of WOAWO. That means I get to start thinking about what else I get to do. "I Miss You" is still continuing, as it may for some time. BUT here are a few "Hanyou" world ideas I have. _

_**One-shots**--these would be short and perhaps pointless bits of entertainment. They would allow me to flesh out original characters. I might do a Shimofuri piece, or more likely, a bit about Kohimu, Tisoki, Kasai, Shippo, or of course Koinu. Could be fun. _

_ **Spin-off AU**--this idea came upon me recently. I reread "So Much for the Hanyou's Happy Ending." And I remembered that before I made anice happy ending I had planned to strand a pregnant Kagome in the Modern Era for a while. I liked the thought of the reunion eventually between IY, Kagome, and the child (Koinu???). If the baby looked like IY then imagine its troubled childhood, unlike other kids, forced to be kept alone b/c of that. And then the amazement as father and child (son??) met up again. I dunno, I await your reviews._

_**Sess/Rin**--This one I already have mostly planned out. It would examine the Sess/Rin relationship and explain little tid bits I've thrown into the story in WOAWO. For example, no one's wondered about this so I'll point it out b/c it was VERY deliberate: WHY is Sesshomaru interested suddenly in the civil war in the Middle Lands? He hates the clan, why is he helping Shimofuri? Why not Nishiyori? Nishiyori is more powerful...what's he got against him? _

_I will flesh each of these out more if you ask it. But now I bid you farewell!  
_


	34. To Deceive the Dead

**(A/N: The beginning verse is from a poem my sister wrote. Her poetry is generally amazing. I may write novels but she writes poetry better than I ever could). **This chapter just leapt out of me so fast. I delayed posting it immediately b/c I am a review whore and, more legitamately, I had to see if you believed Inuyasha's outburst last chapter to be OOC or not. The consensus was that he was harsh but not OOC. Thus I update now. The next chapter is not yet written and barely started, but my writing spurt is not finished yet I think, so you may well see more soon. :-)

I think the middle bit with the unshakable Sesshomaru will be interesting...I had a lot of fun writing that. Last night I was also able to stay up late again, on a weeknight! Yay! And I watched Adult Swim's lineup. I got to see "Forever With Lord Sesshomaru." That has thoroughly convinced me that taking a look at the relationship there is well worth it. AND I believe the development of **Rin's character** will be especially fun. She impressed me with the episode I saw last night, so adult even though she's just a girl there, and very willful even at her young age. If you can get your hand son that episode I recommend it. :)

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha the manga or the series or anything. But I do wish I did so I could be rich :-)**

* * *

**Last Chapter: **Shimofuri visited his mother, Taikokajin, hoping she would let him end her suffering by taking her life. She told him she's waiting for Tsukiyume to return, but Shimofuri thinks his sister is dead. Taikokajin insisted she's not, and that when she returns, Tsuki will be the one to out Taikokajin out of her misery. **Inuyasha** is going out of his mind because Kagome, despite everyone's best efforts, is still possessed, though Garou's spirit is restrained. It will slowly kill her. He saw evidence of that when she woke up last chapter. He expects Tsukiyume to cure Kagome, but the hanyou girl has nothing to give him. Inuyasha refused to let her go to her mother and brother. ALSO remember that there is a civil war in the Middle Lands, the inuyoukai Nishiyori is the troublemaker.

* * *

**To Deceive the Dead**

_Her soul is withered  
Drained by loss  
Death smiles upon her  
It keeps no secrets  
But reveals them all to her_

* * *

Tsukiyume opened her eyes, wide and unseeing. She stared into the darkness around her, breathing slowly. And then, gradually, she sat upright. 

Miroku the monk had given her a few spare blankets hours before, and allowed her to sleep in the sitting room, alongside the small table there. She could make out the monk's form, swathed in a few blankets himself, sleeping a few feet away, also on the floor. His light snoring was gentle and almost comforting. The wind howled outside, rattling the shutters and screened windows, making the house moan to Tsuki's sharp hanyou ears.

Those white ears folded down on themselves, pulling back from the outside world. She sat up suddenly; acutely aware that she was the only moving object in the room aside from the monk's slow, easy breathing. Her gaze locked blindly onto a few cups on the table, she smelled old tea, prepared and forgotten in the abrupt homecoming of the lord and lady of the house. _(A/N: I believe around this time period the favored cup style was "Raku-ware" which was especially liked for its simplicity. The bowls were taken hot out of the kiln and tossed into the dirt or into water or manure…that created pock-marks that were cherished because each one was different. But b/c Kagome is from our time and I always thought the Raku-ware bowls were ugly and gross—manure? C'mon!—so let's pretend that these are nice blue-and white china or something? Yeah, Art and Architecture of Japan is interesting.:-P)_

A voice rose, whispering into her ears, through her hair, calling her name, but Tsukiyume knew that she was the only one that could hear it. She searched the darkness, jumping a little when the wind outside hammered into the side of the house.

"_Father…?"_ she had only seen his image in her dreams, in memories passed to her from his spirit when he stepped into her mind, saving her, instructing her. All her life she'd been an obedient child, a loyal and loving sister to Shimofuri as well. Now she struggled to play the same role to the father she'd never known. But it was a difficult thing to do. She had a fear as well as a desperate longing for his spirit's presence.

_My time with you is soon to end. _

She stared at the monk's breathing, up and down…up and down…. When she dared she at last took a deep breath and asked the still, silent air around her, "What's left for me to do?"

_You must go back to Shimofuri, you must help your mother die._

She leaned her head forward, closing her eyes. The wind outside Inuyasha's estate lessened, plunging her into a thick, heavy silence. The darkness seemed to thicken as well, constricting her. Tsukiyume watched the thick curtain of her black hair fall forward, obscuring the world. She felt safer that way, it hid her tears and her expression, though she knew a spirit would likely see anyway, hair or not.

"What about the…" she swallowed, trying to get rid of the burning lump in her throat.

_Inuyasha's mate. You have the answer for her already, Daughter. _

"She's going to die?" Tsukiyume whispered, clenching her fists in her lap. _He'll kill me if that is the only answer, Father…_

_No. You already know how to drive Garou's spirit from her. You must deceive him._

She blinked, confused. "How…?"

_Appear to give him what he wants…_

Tsukiyume shook her head, pleading, "No, that can't be!"

The wind rose up, shaking the screens on the windows of the sitting room. The monk groaned in his sleep and one hand reached out, making Tsukiyume flinch in the darkness. She watched as that pale appendage pawed at the blankets around his body. He muttered, "Sango…?" sleepily.

_I will be with you. I will guide you. I will give you the words you need to explain it to the hanyou._

Miroku shifted his position until he could just barely see the hanyou girl across the room from him. She was not sleeping as he would have expected but rather she was sitting up, wide eyed and alert. The white ears, vividly standing out from her black hair, were lying flat on her head.

He sat up, scowling at the left over dizziness from sleep. "My lady?"

"Can you call Lord Inuyasha for me?" she asked him, without looking at him and with a faint, trembling voice. "You…you must do it quietly without waking the woman…"

"Kagome?" Miroku asked, perplexed. His violet eyes were narrowed with confusion and perhaps a mild suspicion. "Why do you…"

"Please!" she at last looked at him and Miroku made out the faint sheen of wetness on her face, recently shed tears. "I have to speak with him—away from her."

Pinching his lips together uncertainly, Miroku paused for a moment, considering her request. She appeared miserable and rather helpless. Her mother was dying he'd heard, and she'd suffered a great trauma at the hands of the demon spirit that was currently inhabiting Kagome's body. It didn't make much sense to him, though, that the girl would _want_ to speak with Inuyasha, especially after the way the hanyou had spoken to her earlier.

Despite his misgivings he nodded to her and rose from his bed of winter blankets. She didn't look as through she would run off the moment he left her alone…he eyed her warily as he walked down the hallway and to Inuyasha and Kagome's shared room. The door was shut but that didn't deter the monk. He slid the thing open gently and squeezed into the deep darkness of the room.

Before he'd taken three steps toward the bed, Miroku froze, aware suddenly of a low growl coming from that direction. "Inuyasha?" he whispered.

"What do you want?" the hanyou growled. "If you wake Koinu I'll kill you."

"Could you step outside with me…?" he frowned in the darkness, thinking how crazy he was. Of course Inuyasha would turn him down; he was too busy brooding over the ill Kagome and his young, helpless son. He had to explain it further. "The girl wants to talk with you."

"Why?" he snapped. Miroku thought he could see Inuyasha's ears in the dark, flicking frontward and backward, the only light spot in the whole of the room.

"She didn't say—just come." He turned slipping out of the room on silent feet and praying that Inuyasha would follow him out of curiosity alone. He was relieved when he heard the thumping tread of the hanyou's calloused feet following swiftly behind him.

When they reached the sitting room Tsukiyume was still sitting upright, in exactly the dame position that Miroku had left her in. Breathing a small sigh of relief, Miroku sat down again, nearer to the girl this time, somewhere between the girl by the table and his blankets by the entrance to the kitchen. Inuyasha, meanwhile, didn't take a seat. He paced the width of the sitting room, giving the hanyou girl intermittent glares of disgust.

"What do you want?" he grumbled at last when he'd finished his third or fourth circuit of the room.

"I know how to drive the demon's spirit from your mate's body."

_This_ had an effect on the hanyou. He stopped, frozen, and then stared at her, amber eyes narrowed. "About time dammit." But as he stared at her cold, expressionless face and scented the tears, he scowled, ears falling back. "How do we do it—tell me!"

"You must deceive him into thinking you are going to give him what he wants. Then he will leave her body voluntarily."

His amber eyes widened a little, "You mean kill myself or…" he paused, his face losing its expression, "…let her kill me?"

"Not exactly…" Tsuki's shoulders sagged, her ears dropped, she was exhausted. But to Inuyasha's sharp night vision her eyes still glowed with a life, with a power that wasn't quite all hers alone.

Miroku was frowning in the dark. Without as keen of eyesight as the two hanyou in the room he was missing a lot of the silent, unspoken interactions. Hanyous might be comfortable with a conversation in the dark but a human was not. He rose to his feet, dusting himself off for effect, and cleared his throat uncertainly. "I'm going to go light a brazier…"

"No—you're going to go stay with Sango. Keep your family safe." Inuyasha quipped, glaring at the monk.

"No, he is needed for this. The seals that were placed on your mate, they are his. I would help in the ritual but the demon—he knows I'm not what I seem. I've stopped him too many times." She met Inuyasha's gaze timidly, "Everything that your mate sees and knows _he_ will also know. That is why I cannot be present until the last moment. He must believe he's won."

"Feh!" Inuyasha scoffed, once more beginning to pace, "Quit wasting time, girl! Just tell us what we need to do to save her."

Tsukiyume watched his pacing silently, her eyes taking on a deeper, more solemn expression. "It won't be easy for any of you—any of _us._ But for you especially Inuyasha…" she swallowed nervously and started to shake a little as the howling of the wind outside grew more intense, "…_cousin,_ it will be hard."

Inuyasha was unfazed by her warning. "I can handle it." he snapped irritably. "Now tell us how to do this and let's get on with it."

* * *

Shimofuri entered the room first, his uncle Sasugainu followed. They had stopped briefly, at Sasugainu's insistence, to put on more formal robes. Sesshomaru was all about prestige and intimidation, Sasugainu had reasoned. They would get more from him if they played their roles right. 

"I doubt that." Shimofuri had told his uncle while they changed, both into formal robes and hakama colored gray-blue. Sasugainu favored something white, as Sesshomaru usually did because he was fair like Taikokajin had been, but because he was presiding beside his nephew, who favored blues and grays to match his darker pigmentation, he adopted Shimofuri's style.

"Why?" Sasugainu demanded, slightly insulted that his nephew, so much younger than him, would dismiss his advice so easily.

"Have you ever met Sesshomaru, Uncle? He is as stubborn as our cousin, Inuyasha. Appearing one way or another before him will do nothing to make him sway to our side or reveal more to us."

Sasugainu grunted, and made no answer, but when he looked to his nephew he was smiling with pride, almost a fatherly pride. "Whatever Sesshomaru is here for, whatever he says, I will support you, Nephew."

Now they took their spots on the slightly raised platform, settling themselves and staring out at where Sesshomaru sat, his expression cold and distant and—bored? Servants scuttled here and there, rushing to set tea trays before Sasugainu and Shimofuri first and then Sesshomaru as well.

Somehow Sesshomaru managed to look both annoyed and disgusted by the whole ceremony without moving a single muscle in his face. Without Lady Rin at this side, Shimofuri mused, the lord of the Western Lands was absolutely dead and unanimated. He was indeed the ideal demon and ruler.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Shimofuri at last greeted his cousin, "It is a pleasure to see you."

Ceremony and etiquette would have demanded that Sesshomaru bow to honor his cousins, but he made no such move. The only creature that he'd ever bowed to was his father. He wasn't about to break that tradition now for the pup Shimofuri and the annoying, pompous fool Sasugainu.

"I do not see Taikokajin with you." his golden gaze raked over the young heir and his uncle ruthlessly taking in their stiffened postures at his words. Faintly he could still scent the grief on the youth. "So it is true what I have heard. She is dying, or perhaps already gone."

Shimofuri's face had colored, flushed red while the rest of his body had paled. He stared at the floor, a little too overwhelmed to face Sesshomaru directly just yet. Sasugainu, however, reacted with the outrage.

"How dare you, Sesshomaru!" he hissed, allowing a scowl to cross his face. "Have you come only to taunt us in our mourning?"

Sesshomaru pinned him with a bored, slightly annoyed glare. "Not at all. I merely come to understand your circumstances, cousin." He had adopted a slightly calmer, more respectful tone in dealing with them, seeking to casually calm them from their outrage and upset. "You are already in a precarious place as Taikokajin passes her reign to her heir. You are also facing civil war."

Again both Sasugainu and Shimofuri stiffened. It might have been in their plans to slowly bring out their request for his backup, if he would give it, which was very doubtful. But to have it brought up by him so blatantly…it made them both uncomfortable to have Sesshomaru analyzing their weaknesses out in front of them.

"Why have you come?" Shimofuri finally demanded, dropping any friendliness from his tone and failing to hint anything along the lines of respect to Sesshomaru either. His patience had run out.

"I see Inuyasha and that hanyou sister of yours have not brought my message to you." Now Sesshomaru's eyes crinkled with what almost might have been amusement. "That is, of course, not a surprise to me."

"What message?" Shimofuri shouted, leaning forward. His gray eyes were narrowed fiercely on Sesshomaru. The niggling concern for his half-sister and his mother's wishes was pounding in his head, spinning. What had happened between Sesshomaru and Inuyasha and Tsukiyume? He remembered the hostility between the brothers. Had they stopped by and things had gotten out of hand? Had Tsukiyume been unable to appease the brothers? Could Sesshomaru have killed them both on a whim? Countless fears spun inside his mind. His fists clenched in his lap with the potential for rage and his great worry.

"I will offer my armies and supplies for your disposal in the civil war with Nishiyori." Sesshomaru looked calmly between them, bland and bored.

There was silence from Shimofuri and Sasugainu, a shocked silence. Sesshomaru hated the clan, they knew that. He harbored a grudge against them for many reasons, the largest of which was because they hadn't helped him 50 years ago when the Panther demons had tried to invade his lands. Normally the Western Lands existed alone, separate and unaffiliated with the civil wars, disputes, and alliances going on between the various families within the clan. It had flourished for it as well and Sesshomaru was widely envied by other rulers for his success in the Western Lands.

Why had he stepped in and offered his aid to them so graciously. Suspicion immediately followed Shimofuri and Sasugainu's shock. Sasugainu was the first to speak out.

"We thank you for your generous offer, Lord Sesshomaru," he was suddenly very careful with his words, very formal and full of respect, "But I am curious…"

"You are here ruling for the time jointly with Shimofuri?" Sesshomaru asked, his question seemingly unrelated to the previous discussion.

Shimofuri and Sasugainu exchanged a glance, startled. It was Shimofuri that answered. "Yes, my uncle has offered his support to me in this trying time. I am very grateful to him for his counsel and for—"

Sesshomaru rudely interrupted Shimofuri and addressed Sasugainu pointedly instead. "You are offering your own troops and supplies to young Shimofuri?" he asked.

Shimofuri scowled briefly, which drew Sesshomaru's golden gaze and made the young demon stiffen, nervously. He was abruptly all-too aware of his young he was, how inexperienced he was at ruling the Middle Lands…

When Sasugainu responded he sounded surprised, startled. "Yes, I am. I am lending shishi-sama as much as I can. It is my duty—he is kin."

Sesshomaru was silent for a moment, looking between the uncle and nephew, the older Sasugainu and the younger, inexperienced Shimofuri. Both lords seemed to shrink and quail before his power, intimidated.

"Nishiyori will crush you, Sasugainu. Your aid does young Shimofuri no good. You must accept my offer." He told them, eyes narrowing. "If I am not mistaken Sasugainu, your wife is one of Nishiyori's granddaughters? You are allied to him through this union."

Sasugainu winced noticeably and then frowned, covering his moment of weakness. "Nekura has borne me no heirs—" he stammered.

"You are bound." Sesshomaru actually sneered this time, briefly, and then turned his eyes to Shimofuri. "Release your uncle from his bind to you; leave him uninvolved in this war. Accept my offer to help you."

Shimofuri forced his face to remain cold and expressionless. "At what cost?"

There was the faintest quirk of Sesshomaru's lips into what might've been a clever, triumphant smile had he not squashed it in its infancy. Shimofuri couldn't be sure he'd seen it there at all. Only the eyes remained firmly focused on him and alight with an inner glow.

"When Nishiyori is defeated you will punish him, correct?"

"Of course." Sasugainu answered, finding his voice again.

"You will have him killed. And his mates and wives. His heirs. And down the line. What will you do with his land? With his province, the Isei?" Sesshomaru's voice remained calm and distant, as if uncaring, but Shimofuri and Sasugainu were beginning to understand where he was going with his questions.

"Yes, his family will be punished." Shimofuri answered calmly, "We have not discussed his lands or his estate. He has several palaces…"

"Hopefully we can eradicate the entire lot of them." Sasugainu added, a little too happily.

Sesshomaru shifted, appearing to become more at ease, though considering what they were speaking of and negotiating, that shouldn't have been possible. "If I aid you in this war I ask that Nishiyori's lands fall under my discretion. They will be ceded to the Western Lands."

Shimofuri and Sasugainu, already expecting this sort of demand from his earlier questions, met one another's gaze briefly, silently debating. Neither saw much hesitation in the other, the decision was already made. Sesshomaru was making them an offer they could not refuse.

Shimofuri looked back at his cousin and bowed, "We gratefully accept your offer and your terms, Lord Sesshomaru. We are honored to—"

"I have one last term, Shimofuri." Sesshomaru interrupted him swiftly.

The other two lords blinked, taken aback. "Go on…" Sasugainu eventually cued Sesshomaru's next, and hopefully last term.

"I ask," Sesshomaru looked between them with a stern, narrow-eyed expression that neither lord could read properly. "That one of his female kin, unmarried and unrelated to Inutaisho's line either by blood or by marriage, be spared and given to me."

They stared at him, flabbergasted. The cold, deadly Sesshomaru was known to have a human mate that he cared for very much; he'd shown no interest in contacting the clan for an arranged marriage that would provide him with proper, fertile, full youkai offspring. Now it appeared that he did, after all, have an interest in producing proper heirs…but he wasn't about to sink as low as asking the clan to provide him with a nice, arranged marriage wrapped up in an alliance to one of the families.

He was getting what he wanted by cheating the system, moving around it. By gaining a fallen inuyoukai bitch from a defeated family he would have no obligations of alliance to her family, no mess with the clan and its ceremony that he so despised. He would gain a proper inuyoukai wife and none of the other bullshit.

Sasugainu started to chuckle, "Of course! What do you say Shimofuri, shall we get him a good bitch from Nishiyori's brood?"

Nishiyori was indeed known to have many, many daughters from many, many wives and mates.

Shimofuri hesitated, remembering Rin, Sesshomaru's human mate. Her mortal beauty, her loving, the couple's passion. He eyed Sesshomaru with curiosity. Why was he making this move now? Was it something Rin approved of? Did he desire pups that Rin for one reason or another, couldn't give him?

Putting his curiosities aside, Shimofuri knew he could not survive the war with Nishiyori if he did not accept Sesshomaru's offer. He nodded, "I agree to all the terms, and I offer my sincerest thanks to Sesshomaru, lord of the Western Lands. May he live long and always fruitfully."

Sesshomaru allowed a small, cold smile to cross his lips. "It has been a pleasure talking with you, Lord Shimofuri, Lord Sasugainu."

* * *

Miroku sighed as he reached forward to the sleeping Kagome's forehead, touching his thumb to the ink symbol there, marking the sutra spell that was protecting her. "Lady Kagome," he murmured gently, trying to wake her before he removed the spell. 

Her eyes fluttered open slowly. She looked tired. In the dim light of the brazier that they'd lit inside the bedroom her skin was a pale, deathly gray. There were deep circles under her eyes, as if she suffered from a fever. "Miroku?" she moaned, trying to cover her eyes from the light and hissing with pain, "Ow, my head…"

It wasn't hard for Miroku to let his face take on a grave and yet distant look to it. He avoided staring at Kagome directly in the eye. "I am sorry Kagome." He'd dropped any formality and his voice did indeed sound wretched.

"What?" she croaked, confused. She blinked and looked around the room while one hand searched for Koinu at her side. The pup stirred with her, yawning. He was snuggled very comfortably into her side. He started to coo contentedly.

At last she caught sight of Inuyasha, standing a few feet away, his face distinctly grim. Her heart sank. "Inuyasha? What's going on?"

"We're going to make you better Kagome." He answered, darting a quick, uncertain glance at her. His lips were pinched down in a very tight line. "I'm…sorry…"

"What?" she croaked for the second time, noticing all at once that Miroku was adjusting some prayer beads, clanking them together. There were sutras beside the futon, some written others unwritten still. She felt dread opening up inside her. "Wh…what's going on? Inuyasha? Miroku?"

Inuyasha's stiff stance faltered, collapsing a little. He made a small sound in his throat, half cough half something else. Kagome felt her heart picking up speed, her chest constricted and for a moment she felt as if she'd forgotten how to breathe.

"Please." She begged, starting to cry. She looked to Miroku but he turned away, still playing with the prayer beads and murmuring sutras to himself, preparing for something…

When she looked to Inuyasha his ears had drooped pathetically. "Kagome," he rasped, and abruptly he rushed at her and Koinu, falling on them, wrapping his arms around her. She heard his ragged, desperate breathing as he took in her scent. Koinu cooed, mistaking the moment for one of happiness. He reached up and tugged at his father's hair.

Kagome felt her arms and legs shaking, she felt weak with fear. The terrible feeling only intensified as she felt a warm wetness on top of her head—Inuyasha was crying. She felt tears swarming in her own eyes and whimpered weakly, horrified and speechless with what was happening around her. She thought, dimly inside, that she understood what was happening here.

Someone was about to die.

Inuyasha covered her face with kisses and then burrowed his face into the crook of her neck, sighing long and slow. She shook, thinking bitterly how cruel life had been to give her everything she wanted and then, so suddenly, to turn around and take it from her again. When she felt Inyasha withdraw slightly and clung to him, crying anew. "No, please…"

He pulled far enough away to stare into her warm brown eyes. "It has to be this way Kagome. It's…it's my job to protect you both." He swallowed thickly, "This is the only way."

She shook her head, wincing when that brought on a brief spasm of pain, "No, no I won't let you!"

Inuyasha pinched his lips and looked away from her, directing his attention to Koinu now. The baby had grown more solemn now, feeling the tragedy hovering just close by. His blue eyes were wide and bright, sharp and focused on his father's face. When Inuyasha moved to be lower, on level with the pup, Koinu squealed and lunged forward, pawing at his father's face.

"Dah…" he said, trying to speak. "Dah…"

Inuyasha's ears drooped all over again. He ducked close to Koinu and scooped the pup up, holding him close. Koinu giggled, not understanding the grief, not understanding that his father was saying goodbye.

Kagome shook, trying to restrain her sobs as she watched her husband and her son, for the last time…

**(A/N: Now I considered being truly evil and leaving it here for you guys, but I decided cliffies right here, no good, I'd give you more.)**

* * *

"_It must be believable. Your mate will have to suffer. She will have to think it's real. If she believes it, the demon's spirit will believe as well."_

At the time Inuyasha hadn't realized how _hard_ this part of the plan would be. Their demeanor, the slow preparation for some act that they didn't tell Kagome about at all, that wasn't the least bit hard. It was easy to genuinely feel grief in the situation, to fear that this really would be the last time he saw all of them again…

Ro be safe he actually had spoken to Sango and Miroku and their children beforehand, as well as Shippo of course. It'd been harder then, he'd put on a brave, hard face, though inside he'd been quailing. What if they failed? Or worse, what if they succeeded but he died from his wounds anyway?

And Kagome. She was the one they needed to convince, and it was the most painful part of the entire plan. Kagome's tears, her frantic grief and desperation, it was all very hard for Inuyasha to withstand. He wanted to breakdown and tell her that everything would be all right—but at once he knew that could be a lie too.

It was for the best, he tried to tell himself, everything would work out. They had to do it this way. But that made him feel no better about letting her cry and suffer, thinking the worst…

"_He will be reluctant to leave her, he'll always be suspicious. Just saying you'll cooperate would never work. Only action will make him leave her body. Action and blood. He must believe you are sacrificing yourself to save her and the pup." Tsukiyume had told them, speaking quietly, in a faint whisper. To be safest they'd transferred to the farthest room they could find from the bedroom where Kagome slept. Miroku had roused Sango to join them and she sat with a concerned frown on her face the entire time while at her side Miroku looked grimly serious. _

"_You want me to gut myself?" Inuyasha asked, "Or does she…" the thought of letting Kagome kill him, even though he knew that it wouldn't really be Kagome doing it, was a little too traumatizing. He didn't know how much memory Kagome retained from her attempts to kill him while she was possessed before. He didn't want to leave her with those memories, the guilt would be horrible. _

"_No, you can't let him do it because he will leave no room for error. He will take your head or your heart." Her ears fell backward, "We don't want you killed. But it must look bad enough to be fatal. The demon is very arrogant, he underestimates inuyoukai and inuhanyou, he will assume any large amount of blood would be fatal." _

"_What if he realizes it's a trick too quickly," Miroku asked solemnly, "What if he flees back to Kagome's body…"_

"_A charm. You will prepare a charm and place it on her at the last minute, just after he has abandoned her body. There should be a charm made for the pup too."_

In the present, as the past conversation played through Inuyasha's mind, he rumbled to Koinu, touching his son's face, fingers, hair, ears, toes, the tiny still flat ridge of his nose. Kagome was watching their interaction, crying and sobbing, struggling even to breathe through her emotional pain. Inuyasha poured his thoughts into memorizing his son's features, recalling the baby's birth, the difficult but miraculous conception. It would be such a shame, he thought, if he didn't live to see his child grow up…

_But Kagome will survive. _That was all that really mattered.

"_Why does Koinu need one?" Sango had asked, her frown deepening as she tried to figure it out for herself. _

_Tsukiyume met her questioning gaze openly, without fear or uncertainty. "His spirit is incorporeal, he is without physical substance. He needs Inuyasha's body and blood to bring his people back into this world, but he needs Inuyasha's **soul** to animate them, to break the curse. When he thinks Inuyasha is, dying, he'll leave her body and try to grasp and take hold of Inuyasha's soul. After that he will flee into either the woman again or the baby."_

"_Wait minute! My soul?" Inuyasha snapped, "Are you saying he can—he will…"_

"_No, he'll realize you are not as close to dying as he believed, and we can have a charm on you as well. He shouldn't sense them while he is caught in her body."_

As he held Koinu, Inuyasha pulled out the small string of beads, prayer beads, which earlier Miroku had charmed, placing a spell to ward off foreign, unwelcome spirits. He slipped them into Koinu's diaper, though that motion made the baby screw up his face with something that might have been bafflement. His ears twitched to and fro. Inuyasha touched them as they moved, stroking them. The pup reacted by squirming and giggling.

_I hope this works…_he thought, sneaking a swift, pained look at Kagome.

"_Do we speak to **him** before we do this?" Sango asked. _

"_Yes," Tsuki nodded to Miroku, "You will need to remove the restraining spell that keeps her in control of her own body, you'll have to let him out."_

_Miroku's grimness changed to an expression of alarm. "But…"_

_Tsukiyume nodded, "I know, it's dangerous. Tie her up first, then release him. It will frighten her and make him suspect but there is no way out of it. Leave on the other spells that control his powers."_

Miroku moved, on some invisible cue, and began to bind Kagome's legs with a wiry rope, the same he had used on her before the restraining sutra, when Inuyasha had first brought her home. Now her tears turned slightly to alarm.

"What are you doing? Miroku!" her tears fell double. She strained, trying to reach for Miroku's hands to stop him, only to fall backward, writhing and crying with the pain swarming in her head. When she opened her eyes again she was shaking and Miroku had finished binding her legs. Her brown eyes, usually warm and full of love, were narrowed with a sudden, fierce determination.

"Talk to me! Inuyasha! Miroku!" her hands fisted up angrily as Miroku reached for them, ready to tie them as well.

"No! I won't let you do it!" she shouted, fury powering her otherwise weak body. She beat on Miroku's chest, making the monk flinch, but he refused to withdraw. Finally, after he'd caught one of her fists, Kagome brought up the other and smacked him in the jaw; hard enough to make the monk's eyes water. Instinctually he withdrew from her, rubbing his face.

"You can't do this!" Kagome shouted; her eyes were tortured, red and puffy, lit from within with a wild, desperate fear. She stared at Inuyasha where he'd withdrawn to, still holding Koinu. There was a challenge in her gaze.

"I won't let you do this!" she shouted, her voice growing firmer, more powerful. "Inuyasha! There's got to be another way!" she choked a little, still half-sobbing, "Not this way. _Not. This. Way!"_

_Sango buried her face in her hands, when she pulled them away again she was crying, the teardrops falling steadily. "How can any of this work? Inuyasha nearly killing himself to draw this thing out of Kagome. Hidden spells and charms on everyone. We're putting everyone on the line, risking everything. What if it's lying? Demons **always** lie, they **always** hold something back…" she gestured helplessly, "Do any of you remember Naraku?"_

_There was a collective shudder that ran through them, but no one had any answers, only Tsukiyume, and for once the hanyou girl sagged, tired, perhaps defeated. _

"_I really don't know, I'm sorry. Really, I am. It might work just as I've described, or it may make something else happen." She sighed deeply, staring down into her lap, "I will wait outside the room and when the time comes, when I am needed…"_

Miroku tried to move over Kagome again, his face stern, his lips set in a hard line and his jaw firmly clenched. But Kagome's fury had made her stronger. Her desperation made her aim more accurate. She slammed one fist into his nose and Miroku stumbled away, blood trickled from between his fingers. He gasped, choking on the stuff.

"You _won't_ do this, I _won't let you!"_ Kagome shrieked. And suddenly she pushed herself into a sitting position, wincing and crying out as she did so but refusing to collapse with the pain. Her nimble fingers worked over the knot around her ankles, trying to untie herself. She was gasping from the pain, and sweating as well, but thought her hands and fingers shook and quaked she moved relentlessly onward, picking at the knot.

Inuyasha stared at her, stunned. "Kagome…?" the pain should have been knocking her unconscious.

Miroku looked helplessly between the hanyou and the miko, flabbergasted. _This wasn't how things were supposed to work!_ His eyes screamed at Inuyasha, asking what to do next, but Inuyasha was just as clueless.

The knots in the rope gave way before Kagome's fingers. Panting, she turned to look between Inuyasha and Miroku. The hanyou noticed there was a strange, fiery glow in her eyes, a blue-purple glow…

The hair on the back of his neck began to stand on end. Koinu's baby eyes opened wide and he turned in his father's arms, staring at his mother.

_What's going on…?_

* * *

(A/N: Yes, I am aware that I am still very evil for leaving you there. But this was better than the other place, am I right?) Hooray!! We are almost finished! I am promising now a nice, sweet, happy epilogue for you all before it is completely finished...with a nice surprise and the last visit from our friend Hojo!  



	35. Tsukiyume's Sacrifice

(A/N: Poem is again from my sister the poet. It is not copyrighted, thus I have the right to use it. **Katherwyne** your review came in for Chapter 33 just as I was posting 34 so I was unable to answer your question with that post. So I am doing it here. **Koinu is somewhere between 6 months and 9 months. He can crawl and sit up and make some basic facial expressions. He has yet to walk. He is younger than Kasai, Sango's baby daughter. Developmentally he may mature more slowly than a human baby in some ways but faster in others. (I.e. teething may be slower but he might walk faster, it remains to be seen, or rather written**. Also I have to say sorry I'm lame, I'm tired. This was written several days ago and ready for you. It is the last non-peaceful chapter!! WOW! Celebration! I hope you like it but I need to be in bed it's like 3AM and I have to be working by 4pm tomorro and I value rest...)

**Dsiclaimer:** Don't own him. Wish I did, I don't.

* * *

Last Chapter: You know what sorry guys but you're going to have to reread it if you don't remember, I'm too tired to write this out right now X-(

* * *

**Tsukiyume's Sacrifice**

* * *

_Free me of my pain  
__Fly me away  
__And set me free  
__Ease me into  
__A lulling sleep  
__That I shall never wake from  
__Fly me away_

* * *

Tsukiyume waited outside the doorway, straining her ears and a deeper, inner sense that she hadn't quite known she possessed. Her father's spirit was with her, like a soldier astride his horse, guiding the beast with his intelligence and will. It was his spirit alone that allowed her to access the spiritual powers that resided within her. Normally her demon half was more powerful, the dominant side of her nature. It suppressed the powers that had been passed onto her from her human father, Kokoro the monk.

Yet when he was with her, as he had been since her abduction by the demon Garou, Tsuki was aware of the power hidden inside her, stretching its unseen fingers slowly and with growing confidence.

She felt her father's presence lingering over her, narrow and restrained. He was hiding, just as she was, trying to stay out of sight and sense of the manifestation inside Inuyasha's human mate.

_It will be soon now, daughter. She is more powerful than he had ever anticipated, even more than she herself believes. She was never a willing host, he has cheated her, and now she will make him pay. _

She nodded to the air, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. Anticipation grew inside her, making her feel as if her body had swollen, as if she'd been dipped into some sort of caustic substance that irritated every ounce of her flesh. It terrified her, to think of facing Garou again, even if it was only in spirit form, and even if it was not truly her that would at last banish him…

_Do not discount yourself._

Surprised, Tsukiyume looked around, searching for his face, almost expecting to see it. A pang of regret washed over her, it was such a shame that she had never really known him. What could he have taught her? The monk that Inuyasha shared his home with had intrigued her. She'd wondered over and over again if her father had been similar. Had he dressed that way? Had his demeanor been the same in life? Perhaps they had trained under some of the same men. Could they have known one another in life…? There was so much about him she longed to know, but knew it was lost with him with his untimely death. _Why did Mother kill him? Why would she deprive me of knowing my own father?_

_You were not in her thoughts, Daughter. She did not consider that you would want to know me, though it should have occurred to her. She was close with her own father._

Tsukiyume frowned, closing her eyes frustratedly. _It isn't fair…_

_Many things are not fair. You must live through them nonetheless. Always remember you are more powerful than you believe, Tsukiyume. Look at your cousin, Inuyasha. He is also hanyou, as you are. Do not doubt yourself. When I have gone and left you I pray you will remember my words. _

She blinked, fighting the hard, burning press of tears behind her eyes. _I will try my hardest, Father. _

From inside the bedroom a woman's voice rose, full of a desperate, quivering strength. Tsuki tensed, crouching unconsciously, abruptly alert.

_Yes, it is nearly time._

* * *

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted, moving to restrain her. "Don't—"

Her arms fell on his shoulders, her grip was surprisingly fierce. And her touch—Inuyasha gasped and jerked away from her, grimacing with pain. Even through his clothes, the old, dirtied and torn fire rat haori, he could feel where her hands had landed on him, tingling, burning. And when he stared at her, wide-eyed and dismayed, her eyes were no longer just dark and clouded with tears. There was something else there, something he hadn't seen in years, not since the last fight with Naraku…

Miroku, still with his nose spurting blood, blinked with shock, recognizing what was happening. "Kabome…" he snuffled through his bleeding nose.

The young mother struggled, her face twisting with pain, swinging her legs until they rested on the floor and then, biting her lip, she started to stand up. Inuyasha again reached out to try and stop her—it was a mistake. Touching her bare arm shocked him like electricity. A purple-blue static fuzzed over Kagome's skin, jumping out to burn him when he came close. Koinu's ears turned backward and he whimpered, squirming uncertainly in his father's arms.

"Stop Kagome, you're going to hurt yourself!" Inuyasha shouted at her, frustrated, his tone fraught with concern.

She ignored him. Every movement was a struggle for her, Inuyasha could see sweat beaded thickly on her brow. At her side her hands were clenched so tightly that she had to be cutting herself with her own fingernails. Her jaw was tightened; Inuyasha could hear her teeth grinding against one another. In spite of all of this she fought, fueled from within.

It was endurance and power beyond what a normal human should have, but a mother, at the edge of losing everything that mattered most to her, was indeed no ordinary human. Inuyasha could smell the stink of stress hormones and adrenaline pouring off her…

She started to stand up, her knees wobbling, but her face bent in a fierce, tight mask of determination. Her eyes, when Inuyasha saw them clearly past her half-closed lids, were still the strange darkened shade of purple-blue.

It was her miko powers, asserting themselves, coming to aid her in her most dire hour of need.

Koinu squirmed and reached for her body with his tiny clawed hands. "Mah!" he shouted with a surprisingly powerful voice, "Mah!"

At that sound Kagome turned to look at him and suddenly collapsed, clutching her head and crying out. Again Inuyasha reached for her, calling her name, but his when his hand—the free hand not wrapped around Koinu to support him—touched her it sparked against her skin, her clothes. He growled, trying to overcome the discomfort, but when he reached again, more firmly, the sparking only grew worse until Inuyasha was almost repelled physically by the force. He stumbled backward and into the futon and finally fell, barely catching himself with one arm. Koinu screamed at the abrupt motion.

Miroku stepped forward at last. He hesitated touching her at first and then cautiously laid his hands on her shoulders. There was no burst of purple-blue electrical energy; Kagome's purifying magic did not react with Miroku's human touch. The monk's hands, trying to support her, left bloodstains on the new robes Inuyasha had brought her after she'd nursed Koinu earlier in the night.

"Kabome—Ib's okay, relabs…balm down. Breabe…" (Translation: Kagome it's okay, relax, calm down, breath.)

But beneath his hands she was shaking, almost convulsing. Her jaw chattered as if she were shivering, her hands her up, holding her head, pressing her ears to her skull as if she were trying to block out Miroku's voice. In reality the problem came not from the outside, but the inside.

_Give it up little bitch! You know I'm going to win this! You're weak, you always have been! _

She whimpered with pain, but the look inside her eyes never changed, though only the dust mites in the floor could see it as she lied, hunched over and holding her head, staring at the hardwood flooring. _I never let you in—get out of my head! _She had stopped listening to the taunting that had arisen within her when Inuyasha and Miroku had been preparing for their ritual. Her upset had brought out the miko spiritual powers buried within her, strengthening them. That had also stirred Garou's spirit, he could not allow her to find her own strength, he had to quell her outburst or risk everything.

"Leb me help you boo bed," Miroku was saying. She felt his grasp on her shoulders strengthening, pulling on her.

"No!" she shouted, still quivering, but she managed to coordinate her movements enough to pull away from him.

"You're going to kill yourself!" Inuyasha shouted from close behind her. He'd crept up as near to her as possible without actually touching her. Koinu he'd left on the futon, sucking his thumb and watching the events unfolding a few feet away with a bright, intense gaze. His ears swiveled forward and back, unable to make up their minds whether he was content or unhappy with what he saw.

"No!" she shrieked again when Miroku's hands closed over her shoulders, "No!"

Inuyasha moved to sit in front of Kagome, tapping the floor with his claws to catch her attention. It pained him to see the sweat dripping from her forehead, her wild, ratty hair, dirty and going everywhere, this way and that. When she met his gaze her eyes were still tinged purple. Her chin quivered.

"Kagome! _Please…_there's no other way!" he scowled, feeling desperation at the edge of his brain. "_Please!_ Don't do this!"

_You know he's right, little bitch! It is the only way I'll leave you alone in this small little mind of yours that you cherish so much. Do us both a favor and let him get on with it. You won't miss him much, no one will. You can't win, I will just kill you and take one of them…_

"No!" she screamed again. Shaking, Kagome pulled back from the hanyou. She cried in pain with the movement, holding her head and rocking. "No, no!" but in her head she was screaming at Garou: _No, I'm not going to die here; I'm not going to die now. I'm going to live and see Koinu grow up, I'm going to have more pups for Inuyasha._

_You delude yourself, stupid bitch. My plan will succeed, I will prevail. You're too weak to survive; you will only perish if you keep fighting me. All roads lead to the same thing: I will gain your mate's blood and his soul, and through him we will be reborn…_

_You are the unnatural one here,_ Kagome had ceased to hear Inuyasha and Miroku's voices. She might've slipped into unconsciousness but she was certain that she could still feel Miroku's touch every so often, trying to drag her back to the futon. She dislodged his hands each time and continued to suffer, convulsing, crying, in pain. _You can't cheat death for very long…_

_The same could be said for you, little bitch._ He cackled inside her ears.

Kagome winced at the internal sound, but her soul did not quail, in spite of his words, his laughter, his scorn, she was full of nothing but determination. The pain seemed, somehow, duller, more of an aching throb. It no longer stole her breath away, no longer completely obliterated the world…_No,_ she whispered internally, _now isn't my time. It's yours. _

The voice inside her fell silent, and abruptly Kagome felt something twist within her, expanding and reaching. She whimpered, pawing her hands on the floor as the pain inside her cascaded and reached a crescendo. Her cries grew into a higher pitched wail of agony.

Inuyasha snarled, reaching for her again, but microseconds before his hands touched her, Kagome's body flashed and purple-white. The electric-like current wavering around and over her body flickered wildly, flaring with a sudden energy burst. The hanyou withdrew, startled, ears laying flat.

"Kagome!" he shouted, ducking low to try and see her face. Her sweat was a heavy reek, droplets of it were scattered beneath her on the smooth, wooden flooring. "Kagome, _please!"_ he wasn't sure what he was begging her for but he'd been reduced to helplessness and he knew he despised that.

The brightness of the now purple-white aura around Kagome didn't dissipate, but her screams lightened, becoming only faint mewlings of pain. At first Inuyasha was sure she was about to succumb and pass out—or perhaps even worse, _die_—but although her convulsive shaking hadn't eased at all, Kagome's breathing had become somehow more stable, stronger. The miko energy swirling around her twisted, thickening.

Kagome screeched, flattening herself against the floor. Her hands were no longer holding her head, now they pawed at the floor so hard her nails traced grooves and scratches into the polish. She called his name, _"Inuyasha!"_

He reached for her, but at that moment the purple-white miko energy swarmed, and abruptly changed color to _black._ Kagome cried out, long and wailing, as the aura coalesced, seeming to peel away from her body like the skin of a potato when cleaved away by a knife. It was black like tar now, thick and sickly, but somewhere within it, Inuyasha could sense lights like red stars, eyes taking in the room, an evil, conniving intelligence hidden just inside…

_Garou…_

There was a clattering sound from the doorway into the bedroom and Tsukiyume appeared, her young plump face tight with tension and fear. She pointed one clawed finger at Miroku and shouted, "Put the charm on her, _now!"_

Miroku obeyed, searching with his bloody palms on the ground around his knees, amidst all of the sutras. Most of them were useless, written earlier when they were devising their plan where Kagome couldn't see. The ink characters were scribbled out, mixed up, or simply made up. Only one of them was real, buried safely below the fake ones to hide it from Garou's potential gaze. It was a sutra meant to protect the one who wore it from invasion by a spirit.

The monk slapped it onto Kagome's back where she still shivered and quivered weakly, covered in sweat from her ordeal. She stretched out her shaking, convulsive hands toward Inuyasha, speaking his name in a pleading whisper—but for once in his life Inuyasha didn't really hear her. His eyes were locked onto the black spirit hovering in the middle of the room.

The thing twisted, sending out a black tendril that reminded Inuyasha a little too much of Naraku's monstrous, absorbing limbs. It first shot out one of these feelers straight at him. The hanyou snarled, reaching for Tetsusaiga with one hand while brandishing his talons with the other. The tentacle moved too fast for him to draw his sword…

"Iron Reaver!" he shouted, slashing at the thing—but his claws passed through nothing but dust…

Panic bugged out his amber eyes. He fell backwards, fighting with Tetsusaiga's hilt.

Kagome was screeching, calling his name in her faint, croaking voice. She was too weak to move after him, but her arms reached outward, her tears fell onto the floor. Miroku had moved to her side protectively and was holding his once-cursed hand, rubbing the palm as his violet eyes followed the encounter. "Inuyasha! You're wearing the charm, it can't hurt you!"

The hanyou could not crawl fast enough to stay away from the thing's reach. It raced toward him until it touched and seemed to penetrate his chest. Inuyasha snarled, slashing at it with both clawed hands. He cursed violently.

The spirit arm retracted suddenly, just as a bright spurt of light leapt out of the hanyou's haori where he'd hidden the charmed prayer beads Miroku had given to him earlier. The demon spirit seemed to howl, on a deep, primordial level, filling the room with a rumble that would've reminded Kagome of bass in a stereo in the modern age—if, of course, she hadn't been so weak and was able to think and observe clearly.

It had been thwarted, the inuhanyou is so desperately needed was protected. But its choices were not gone just yet, there was still the baby's soul. It careened toward the child sitting innocently on the futon, shooting out multiple tendrils toward him.

Inuyasha sat up all over again, still breathing harshly from his first encounter with the monstrous spirit. He shouted at Miroku, "Koinu! It's after Koinu _dammit! Stop it you idiot!"_

Tsukiyume was still half hidden in the narrow doorway, as if trying to block the exit with her body. "He's protected too. It has no one to go to but…" her ears flattened despairingly, her orange eyes were wide and shining with unspent tears.

Inuyasha stared at her, comprehension dawning at last. "You planned this—you _knew…"_

Across the room Koinu started crying, alarmed as the spirit probed him with its undead arms—and was almost immediately repelled again by a blast of white energy. It recoiled, howling again and filling the room with a frightening mood of rage and desperation. Without moving it shot out more probing spirit arms, attacking Miroku and Kagome at once, and finding them also protected by the sutras.

And then it at last spotted the last life force in the room—and it pulsed, alarmed. It recognized Tsukiyume as the one who had ultimately killed its body, cleaving it apart and at last ending his reign of horror over all hanyous. Now rage and vengeance blinded it. The enraged soul raced for Tsukiyume, sending out tentacles and filling the room with its rumbling snarl.

Tsukiyume stood her ground for a second, and then she began to shake as fear and panic consumed her. At last she stumbled backwards, only to run into the screen door that she herself had made sure to shut. Her orange eyes were wild with fear, her white ears flat on her skull. She was fumbling with the door just as the first tendril of the spirit's arm reached into her, making her choke and gasp.

She cried out and twisted round, looking to the other stricken people in the room. "Help me!" her claws pierced the screen door, tearing wide holes into it and filling the room with a long, loud ripping sound. _"Help me!"_ now her cry was full of pain.

Inuyasha's face became a thick mask of rage at her cries. The girl was not truly close kin, she was the daughter of the one responsible for the entire mess, but she'd saved his life numerous times…he owed her. She was related to him, albeit distantly. The instinct of the inuyoukai ran thickly within him.

He lunged at the black ball of the spirit, slashing through it. "You're wasting your time with her, fucker! You coward!"

At his slashes the ball shivered, breaking apart and then re-massing. It pulsed, flashing white in its depths. Inuyasha felt the hair on his arms stand up as he sensed its gaze, its attention turning again to him.

But its spirit arms had not let go of Tsukiyume. Three of them now swarmed around her, over her, and _in_ her. The hanyou girl collapsed against the screen door, beginning to convulse as Kagome had earlier. Her claws scraped onto the floor.

It wasn't working. Inuyasha growled to himself. What fool idea had Tsukiyume come to? Sacrificing her own body to free Kagome's? _I have to help her!_

"Miroku! Do something, dammit!" Inuyasha again slashed at the spirit, dispersing it slightly. But with a sinking, feeling dawning inside him, he realized that the spirit was only growing smaller and smaller not because of his attacks, but because it was sinking into Tsukiyume's body.

"Give it up you stupid asshole!" he slashed a last time and then, fishing one hand into his haori, he pulled out the charmed beads that protected him from the demon's spirit. "Come and get me!"

The spirit pulsed once, pausing. Tsukiyume's screams became fainter.

"That's right! You don't want her do you, you sick bastard? Take me!"

Miroku was fumbling on the floor, searching for a sutra that he hadn't dirtied with the blood from his nose. The ink had spilled onto the floorboards. He cursed. "Inuyasha! No! don't do that!"

The spirit paused one more moment, contemplating perhaps. And then it flashed, sending a shockwave out through the room. The blast knocked Inuyasha backwards and threw Miroku clumsily over Kagome's still prostrate body. Koinu tumbled on the futon and began to cry.

_Your charms will not affect me once I am inside my newest host. I will use her body to kill you and take what I need…_the spirit taunted, speaking inside Inuyasha's head with a cackle. When the hanyou looked up he saw the spirit shrivel into itself and then ram into Tsukiyume's shuddering body.

The hanyou girl began to scream in agony, long and bloodcurdling.

Inuyasha leapt to his feet and ran for the girl. Her body was clouded over by the spirit, making her look as if she were smoking or smoldering like the coals in a dying fire. When his hands touched her they came away stinging and burning—almost but not quite the same pain that Kagome's purifying magic had done to him…

_Get back._

Inuyasha froze, shocked. The voice had spoken in his head, but it was not the demon spirit's, but some other force. _What the hell…?_

The voice repeated its former command, this time making Inuyasha cringe: _Get BACK!_

The blackness of the spirit had disappeared, driving itself into Tsukiyume's body. The girl's shuddering at last stopped, thought her face remained twisted sickeningly with pain. Sweat beaded on her forehead, her ears, Inuyasha noticed, still quivered.

She opened her eyes slowly—they were still the same orange color as before. For a moment Inuyasha nearly breathed a sigh of relief—and then he saw them darken over from the pupils outward, until her whole iris looked like a pot of black ink.

Inuyasha had already started moving away from her, anticipating the ugly confrontation about to come, when the girl's clawed hand shot out and snatched his ankle. She grinned leeringly, her fangs glistening. _"I've got hold of you now…"_ it was Garou's voice, speaking through the hanyou's girl's vocal cords.

Snarling, Inuyasha kicked out at her, hitting the girl in the face with his foot. She let go, groaning. Inuyasha smelled her blood spurting into the room, mingling with Miroku's and Kagome's sweat. The entire bedroom stank like a war zone.

"Shit." He cursed, moving to stand between the collapsed Kagome, the confused Miroku, and Koinu still whimpering on the futon. "This ain't good."

"Why bibn't she brobebt herbelb?" Miroku blubbered through his nose. (Translation: Why didn't she protect herself?)

"I don't know." Inuyasha growled. "Take Kagome, Miroku. Keep her safe."

The monk hesitated, "Boinu…" (Translation: Koinu?)

Inuyasha was already moving to protect his son, scooping his tiny son into his arms, but always with one amber eye watching Tsukiyume where she was gasping on the floor, half-choking on the blood from her nose. He'd not spared any force with the blow, and though part of him wanted to feel guilty for that he knew there hadn't been any other way to get clear of her before the thing tried to kill him. _Am I going to have to kill her now?_

Tsukiyume looked up at him from the floor. Blood had trailed from both nostrils, circling around her mouth, flowing in the laugh lines of her face. It dribbled down from her chin, smearing over her lovely, pale neck. Like blood on the snow…blood on white rose pedals. But her eyes when she stared at him were pitch black like the ink Miroku used to make his sutras.

"_You'll pay for that—all of you! You should have taken the easy way out Inuyasha. Now I'm going to kill all of you, including your poor sweet little bitch!"_

Somehow, though it hardly seemed possible, Tsukiyume's nearly childlike voice laced with the deep, throaty masculinity of Garou's, was more disturbing than Kagome's mixed with the monster's.

"No—I'd kill the girl first." Inuyasha responded darkly.

Tsukiyume grinned sickeningly. _"You are too soft, Inuyasha. You couldn't,"_ midway through the sentence Garou allowed Tsuki's voice to filter through naturally, childlike and pure; it sent a sour chill down Inuyasha's spine. "You couldn't kill me, cousin, could you?"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes defiantly, taking the dead demon's words as a challenge. Without looking at Miroku, who had by now scooped up Kagome into his arms, Inuyasha commanded, "Get her out of here Miroku!"

But Kagome fought in his arms, blearily looking around her, "No! Stop!"

Tsukiyume was slowly pushing herself to her feet, looking stronger and stronger by the minute. Hatred, rage, blood thirst…there were expressions on her face that had never before appeared there. Her black hair, longer than Kagome's and straight as a board, reminded Inuyasha sickly of his mother. Her white ears had gone still on her head, giving away nothing, or perhaps the demon inside her skin had not learned, or did not care, to manipulate them.

"_I'm going to slash out your throat, Inuyasha." _She said, licking her lips, _"And then I will tear your whelp apart too—and suck the marrow out of his bones."_

The words were so ugly, the threat so obscene, Inuyasha felt his guts curdle. What response was there to that really? He had to kill her to save his family, to save himself, but it would haunt him too—she was just a girl, just a _hanyou_ girl…an _inuhanyou girl, his kin…_

There was no choice.

* * *

When the official documents had been drawn up, signed, and witnessed properly, and the three lords, particularly Sesshomaru and Shimofuri, had all drank sake on the deal, Sesshomaru abruptly surprised them again.

"Sasugainu." He did not look at the other demon lord. His expression was completely bland and bored. His golden eyes revealed nothing of what he was thinking or planning.

"Yes?" Sasugainu's eyebrows shot high into his forehead. He peeked at his nephew but Shimofuri did not return the glance.

"You may leave us. I must speak with shishi-sama." The respect he afforded Shimofuri made both lords stare at him with unbridled surprise.

Sasugainu threw Shimofuri a questioning look before he left, waiting to see if his nephew was comfortable with being left alone with Sesshomaru. Shimofuri nodded, giving him the signal that he should do as Sesshomaru asked. Slowly Sasugainu rose to his feet and bowed, giving his thanks to both his nephew and Sesshomaru. Then he slipped out of the room silently.

"Lord Sesshomaru?" Shimofuri asked, not bothering to disguise his surprise. "What do you wish to speak with me about?"

"You have heard nothing from Inuyasha or your hanyou sister?" Sesshomaru demanded bluntly.

Shimofuri shook his head curtly. "I have heard nothing from either of them. The scouts my uncle has sent out to search for them have returned to us empty handed."

Sesshomaru appeared unconcerned. "Your sister will be with my little brother. You should send someone to get her from his estate shortly."

Shimofuri, caught by surprise, scowled. "How would you know…"

Sesshomaru interrupted him uncaringly. "I have scouts of my own. But that is not important. What I want of you, shishi-sama, is to ask what plans you have for your sister."

Now Shimofuri blinked, taken aback. "What?" _how many females does Sesshomaru want?_

"She is of marrying age but as a hanyou she is worthless to you in alliances within the clan. She has been sheltered by Taikokajin in this castle for many years; she is trained as a diplomat. I have use for her."

Shimofuri felt himself bristle instinctually. Dog demons were loyal caretakers of their mates and closest kin. It was farthest from Shimofuri's mind that Tsukiyume should be shipped off away from his care—though as a female it was her duty to leave her birth home and marry into another family. Yet as a hanyou Sesshomaru was correct, no one would want her as a wife…but Shimofuri still couldn't see exactly what Sesshomaru's interest in her was.

"I am inclined, with all due respect Lord Sesshomaru," he bowed a little to emphasize this, "To tell you that Tsukiyume is none of your business."

Sesshomaru's golden eyes narrowed slightly, pinning the young lord. "I will be frank with you, Shimofuri. I would keep your sister in my palace as a companion to my mate. She would be mentor and teacher to any hanyou offspring I should father. If the chance arises and she sees it fitting, I would allow her to marry whomever she chooses in due time. But in the meantime, as this war with Nishiyori goes on, I would have her in my palace as _assurance_ that you and Sasugainu keep your end of the bargain."

Shimofuri's gray eyes widened, shocked and outraged. His lips thinned into a hard line, but to his credit he did not give in to the urge to curse and shout at his cousin, his newest and most powerful ally. At last he spoke in a cold voice, "And what _assurance_ do I have in return, Sesshomaru?"

The older lord's lips quirked slightly. "You will win this war. And of course you will be able to visit your sister at any time you desire. She will write to you of course, and I will provide her with training and an education." He stared past Shimofuri with an almost smug expression, "For a hanyou it is more of an honor than she could ever have expected."

Staring at the older, very powerful inuyoukai lord before him, Shimofuri realized he had no true choice in this matter. Tsukiyume would be forced to become apart of Sesshomaru's household, whether he liked it or not. It would become tied in with their agreement for the civil war. Suddenly Shimofuri felt as if he had not merely given up Nihsiyori's lands to the demon lord of the Western Lands—he had also sold out his soul. He was powerless now to deny Sesshomaru anything for fear that he would withdraw his aid and leave them to die at Nishiyori's hands.

He sighed internally but let very little of his despair show over his features. "It will be as you wish, Lord Sesshomaru."

* * *

The possessed Tsukiyume dropped into a readied crouched position, sniffling blood. She flexed her clawed hands, throwing Inuyasha a snarling grin. But then her eyes flicked to Kagome and the monk. With Tsuki still half in the way of the door Miroku had no where to run…

"The window, Miroku!" Inuyasha shouted frantically, "The _fucking window!"_

The monk jumped into action, hurrying over the futon and toward the wall opposite Tsuki, behind Inuyasha…

Tsukiyume rushed at him before he'd even stepped onto the futon, moving with the great lunging speed of the inuyoukai family, much like Inuyasha himself. She snatched Miroku's leg, making him fall headlong onto the futon. Kagome cried out, tumbling with him onto the mattress. The possessed hanyou girl lifted her clawed hands, ready to slash both the monk and Inuyasha's mate to bloody bits. She grinned, fangs gleaming past her bloody lips.

But Inuyasha collided with her, slashing with his own claws before she could strike. He used his shoulder to knock her away and then, as fast as he could manage, he knelt and passed Koinu—who he'd been holding previously—to Kagome. He threw the dazed and still bleeding Miroku a quick, meaningful glare. "Get them out of here!"

Kagome reached out and tugged on Inuyasha's hakama pants. "Inuyasha! Please! Don't fight it! Let me…"

He didn't hear the rest of her words before Tsukiyume's claws ripped into him from behind, driving straight through one shoulder. He screamed; his ears were full of the possessed girl's cackling as she tossed him backward, toward the door. He fell, skidding across the floorboards, leaving a thick trail of blood from his punctured shoulder.

Flexing her bloodied fingers triumphantly, Tsukiyume sneered down at him. _"Finally—I can smell your blood."_ there was a brief show of euphoria in her now black eyes, a slow, warm smile… _"At last…"_

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed from behind Tsukiyume, _"Inuyasha!"_

The hanyou leapt to his feet, his face a mask of pain mixed with determination. He held the bleeding shoulder a little strangely, but his stance was still strong and undefeated. "You sick fucker!"

"_Who should I kill first, Inuyasha? The little bitch, the monk, or your whelp? What about the other woman and the other children?"_ Not-Tsukiyume cocked her head to one side, smiling with sick glee, _"Perhaps I shall restrain you as you restrained me within the bitch's body and then I'll make you watch as I kill all of them, one by one…"_

Behind Not-Tsukiyume as she made her speech, a second drama was playing out as Kagome passed Koinu to Miroku and crawled toward Tsukiyume's legs. There was once again a thin purple-blue hue to her eyes. Though no one could see it the glow was centered now at the tips of each of her fingertips.

Only as Kagome was microseconds from reaching the monster did Inuyasha at last catch sight of her. His heart and stomach lurched into his throat, panic made his amber eyes expand several times. "Kagome! No!"

Too late Tsukiyume saw that the hanyou had lost interest in the threat and was worried about something else. When it looked was exactly the moment Kagome's hand closed over her ankle.

"_NO!" _Garou-Tsukiyume screamed, immediately falling flat as if the energy had been drained from them. Her claws scratched into the floor, making everyone cringe. _"You bitch! No!"_

Kagome seemed to grow stronger, pulling herself forward; she laid a second hand over Tsukiyume's back. There was a sudden burst of purple-white light. It grew huge, making everyone else in the room cringe and hide their eyes.

A shockwave tore through the room, cracking the paper over the screen doors, making Kasai begin crying in the other room with Sango. It flattened Inuyasha and Miroku to the floor for the second time.

Garou's voice screamed, higher and higher, agonized, torn apart. And then it faded away abruptly, vanishing. Tsukiyume's female soprano screamed with it at first, and then died as well, falling into nothing.

The light changed becoming more white than purple, and slowly receded, fading back into Kagome. The mother miko was left laying flat, chest heaving, her body faintly sizzling and glowing. Her hands were still lying on Tsukiyume's body.

Inuyasha, despite his profusely bleeding shoulder, was the first to recover. He pushed himself up to his feet with his good arm, taking in Kagome's breathing with one ear and Koinu's crying with another. He approached Tsukiyume and Kagome slowly, cautiously—and then stopped dead in his own bloody tracks.

Tsukiyume had no white dog ears. Her face was covered by her long, flowing black hair, but her head was clearly devoid of the dog demon appendages. _She's been purified. _

He moved to Kagome's body, kneeling at her side. "Kagome?"

As he rolled her over, his fingers still sparking faintly when he touched her, Kagome's hand rose up to touch him, brushing lovingly over his cheek. She smiled at him, though her facial muscles quivered with exhaustion. "I told you not to fight her, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha pulled her close to him, squeezing her tightly. "Kagome!" there were no words to describe his relief. Even if he'd tried he couldn't have found them, let alone articulate them. There were only actions, the comfort of her warm body in his arms, the smell of her body now returning to a normal, healthy state…

Nearby Miroku had quieted Koinu and was still holding the baby, staring at the couple first and then, very slowly, his eyes drifted to Tsukiyume. "Is she Beab?" he sniffled through his nose. (Is she dead?)

Almost in answer to his question the hanyou girl moaned and moved, trying to sit up.

Inuyasha drew away from Kagome, staring with a silent snarl at her as she stirred. Kagome looked as well, though with far less suspicion. "I purified her." she sighed, closing her eyes.

"Anb the ebil spirib?" Miroku asked, tensely. (And the evil spirit?)

No one answered right away; all eyes were turned to Tsukiyume as she sat up and turned to face them. Her face was a mask of pain, covered in blood. She made a few tiny squeaks of pain and surprise in her throat.

When she lifted her eyes to them they were no longer black like ink with Garou's evil influence, but they weren't orange either. They were an almost hazel color, light brown flecked with spots of olive green. "Wh-what happened?" she blubbered through her swollen and bleeding nose.

At last the tension left Inuyasha's body. His ears drooped tiredly. "It's finally over."

* * *

(A/N: YES! It is finally over. That was a long chapter! But as an extra treat I even have a bit of next chapter ready for you! Some merriment has returned for our very LAST chapter:

"_Yes, but I was told to say to you that Lord Shimofuri, ruler of the Middle Lands, extends his greatest thanks. He admires you and welcomes you to visit his lands at any time you so desire it. Is there anything you want me to tell Lord Shimofuri for you…?"_

_Inuyasha blinked, taken aback. He shrugged off the surprise swiftly and snorted. Amusement sparkled in his gold gaze. "Sure. Tell him he's a good kid." _

Update coming soon…)


	36. Bittersweet Endings

(A/N: This chapter is the last true chapter. It will wrap up loose ends—and those loose ends currently lie with getting Tsukiyume home and Taikokajin at last dying. The bit of poetry is again taken from familial sources. But this time that's my own poetry there. I put it there thinking of Shimofuri and Tsukiyume, of how they must come to terms with now being orphans, and the truth of that is that they'd both still have fathers if Taikokajin hadn't had them both killed. So although they love their mother she is also a source of great pain…)

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha

* * *

Last Chapter: Tsukiyume offered herself up as a last ditch host for Garou's spirit. He took it after Kagome forced him from her body. The possessed Tsuki attacked the others, but was eventually defeated when Kagome purified her, purging Garou's spirit at long last and turning Tsuki human for a time. Sesshomaru was still bargaining with Shimofuri. Not only has he asked for one of the many daughters of the old demon lord Nishiyori as well as his province to be added to Sesshomaru's in the Western Lands, but he's also asked for Shimofuri to let him take Tsukiyume into his castle. To have her trained, he says, and to keep Rin company. A hanyou teacher for his hanyou offspring with Rin. But NOW Taikokajin still has to die and say goodbye to her children one last time...

* * *

**Bittersweet Endings**

_When will we cease  
__This stupid game?  
__When will there be peace?  
__When will your name  
__Stop hurting me?_

Sasugainu arrived at the place early in the morning. The sun was beginning to warm enough to melt the thinning, crusting snow along the winding path from the human village. Trees were beginning to bud, blossoms were growing larger, starting to peak out, announcing the first sign of spring. Though it had stormed the night before and there had been sleet and a little bit of fresh, heavy wet snow, it had not been cold enough to damage the new buds and greenery. Sasugainu was pleased at that.

He traveled in his true form, sized down somewhat so as not to alarm most humans _too_ much. He was only the size of a very large, thickly built Clydesdale horse, but his paw prints were much larger than their hooves, a testament to how large his real form truly was. He was a white dog, like Taikokajin and Sesshomaru, but with light, steel blue eyes.

He recognized the estate not from Shimofuri's description, but by the male inuhanyou scent that was wrapped around it—that and the stinky tang of blood that he could make out from miles away. There had been some gruesome trouble recently, within the last few hours.

Keeping downwind, he circled it, observing the grounds, getting a feel for the place…

It disturbed him greatly; the realization at some of the blood was his niece's. What if he found disaster inside, Tsukiyume dead with their cousin, Inuyasha to blame? What was the course of action to follow? Inuyasha had been wronged by his sister Taikokajin. If he had lost his mate because of her foolish cruelty, could Sasugainu truly condemn the hanyou for it?

* * *

"So…Aunt Kagome will be okay now?" Tisoki asked his parents with his wide, innocent brown eyes still puffy from hours of crying the night before. The sight of his father's banged and bruised and bleeding nose the following morning hadn't helped either. He was the spitting image of his mother the demon slayer, but he seemed not to harbor a single harsh bone in his body. Of everyone in the household, with the exception of Kagome perhaps, Tisoki was the sweetest natured.

His older brother on the other hand… "Of course Aunt 'Gome's going to be okay! And Uncle Inu will be fine too—just like Dad." Kohimu was older and more independent. He stayed on the other side of the table where the family was trying to eat the breakfast that Sango had prepared.

Kasai was in her mother's lap. The toddler was scowling at the rice balls in front of them, watching her mother eating with an unpleasant expression. She'd just soiled herself but the other family members had yet to smell it and realize exactly why she was so fidgety.

Miroku, at Sango's side, looked utterly exhausted. Kagome had offered to bandage his nose but he had refused. The bleeding had stopped but there was still bruising around his nose and eyes and when he spoke the words were still slightly muffled. "I'll be fine, Tisoki." He offered his worried middle child a fatigued smile.

Shippo was also eating with the family, but that morning he was unusually quiet. His ears flattened occasionally and he paused, turning to look toward the entryway to the house, his face nervous.

"What's wrong, Shippo?" Sango asked him.

The kit moped into his bowl of rice. "Nothing."

Miroku frowned concernedly, but he didn't speak because at that moment Tisoki made a choking sound and held his nose.

"Yuck! _Moooom!_ Kasai made a stinky!"

Kohimu wrinkled his nose, silently agreeing for once with his younger brother.

Kasai was picking at her linen underpants, frowning with her own disgust at having her mess trapped so close to her own body. Unlike her brothers, who mostly mirrored Sango's features, Kasai was the spitting female image of her father, right down to his violet eye color.

Sango sighed. "All right Kasai, time to go change that stinky diaper." She rose from the table and wandered away and out of the room, heading toward the front door and the privy outside.

Shippo leapt into action, rushing out of his seat and bounding after Sango, and then plastering himself in front of the front door. "No, Sango! Don't go out there!"

Sango never took Shippo for granted any more, not since his fine nose had told her that there was an inuyoukai waiting outside, waiting to talk to Inuyasha to send him on the quest that had nearly killed Kagome…

"What is it Shippo? What's out there…?" she judged his expression not to be one of panic yet, just concern.

The kit's ears drooped. "Another inuyoukai."

Now Sango felt her stomach drop. She felt like cursing suddenly. "Oh no."

Miroku had heard the exchange and, in spite of his fatigue, he got to his feet and hurried away, calling over his shoulder, "Don't go out there Sango, I'm getting Inuyasha…"

"Inuyasha's shoulder was ripped into last night!" Sango shouted after him, sighing. How much could they put the poor hanyou through now?

* * *

"Inuyoukai!" a voice shouted from inside the estate's rather large, protective walls. Sasugainu stopped his patrol, curiously, cocking his ears to hear if the voice—childish sounding—would come again.

It did. "Inuyoukai!"

He sniffed the wind, moved about a little trying to find a breeze that might reveal to him just _what_ the creature was that was calling out to him. When he found it finally he stopped, surprised. It was a young kitsune youkai. He made a small noise in his throat, a sort of woof, knowing that the speaker would hear it with his sharp fox demon ears.

There was a silence, and he thought he sensed fear from the young kit on the other side of the wall. "W-who are you? What do you want here?"

_Yes, definitely fear._ He couldn't help himself, he let his tongue loll with amusement. He walked close to the wall and tightened his legs down, ready to leap it in a single bound. He sprung, flying through the air, and sailed into the gardens beyond. He landed sloppily, much to his embarrassment, in a pile of wet, slushy snow. It was higher and thicker where he'd landed because it was the spot where the pathway to the house from the gate had been cleared.

He shook the snow from his pelt and hopped onto the path, nose and ears alert.

The kit was on the verandah; his tail was puffy, as if he'd electrocuted himself. His hair stood on end and he shivered and shook. His green eyes were bright, huge, and round. "Uh…"

Sasugainu lowered his head, reaching deep within himself, pulling out his bipedal form. A whitish mist circled him, hiding him from the kit's eyes as he transformed. In a moment he stood a good six feet, tall and lithe, wearing his usual white robes.

To Shippo he looked suddenly a _lot_ like Sesshomaru…

The kit screamed and turned to run—but the front door was shut—he collided with it, bumping his head and bounced back off it. He started to curse then, much like Inuyasha.

Sasugainu fought to restrain his amusement. Kitsune youkai had always amused him. He shared some of his province with a small clan of them and whenever he met with them to discuss their taxes they offered nothing but nervous, clumsy hilarity. This kit was not apart of that clan that he could tell—this kit was a light brown, perhaps red. The clan on his province was gray.

"I have come for my niece." He announced, mildly. "I understand that she was last seen traveling with the hanyou Inuyasha. He lives here, I believe…?"

"Uh…" the kit had fallen with his back to the inuyoukai and had yet to rectify that situation. He manipulated the upper half of his torso so that he could eye the inuyoukai distrustfully. "Who wants to know?"

Before Sasugainu could answer him, the sliding door behind the kit slid open and a man stepped out onto the verandah. Sasugainu came to attention, turning his gaze carefully to the cousin that had so impressed his sister and nephew that they had entrusted the destruction and return of Tsukiyume to him…

The infamous hanyou was wounded—Sasugainu could smell the blood and the antibiotic substances that had been used to treat the wound. He could also smell the left over adrenaline, the surge of stress hormones used during a battle. Other than his scent, his hanyou cousin was clearly inuyoukai. His hair was whitish, much like Sasugainu's own. His eyes were amber or gold, hinting at his heritage within Inutaisho's line. He wore red hakama pants, but only a creamy white under shirt—which was loose and unsecured, revealing the strong, sculptured muscles of his chest.

Had he only been a tad bit taller and lacking the white ears on top of his head, Sasugainu might've mistaken Inuyasha easily for a pure bred inuyoukai. Perhaps even a lord.

But the impression of fierce nobility was broken the moment the hanyou opened his mouth. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded, crankily.

"I am Sasugainu of the Middle Lands, the Hokubo province." He ducked his head in a slight bow, not desiring to start out by angering the infamous hanyou. "I am Lady Taikokajin's brother. I have come for my niece, Lady Tsukiyume."

Shippo had darted back to the relative safety behind Inuyasha's legs. At the hanyou girl's name he poked his head out between Inuyasha's red pant legs. "The hanyou girl?"

Sasugainu nodded, "Indeed." He offered nothing more nothing less, waiting for Inuyasha's response.

"I was wondering when one of you morons would get your asses over here." Inuyasha grunted, then, looking down at the kit's face where it peeked out between his legs, the hanyou stamped, making Shippo flinch. "Yo, runt, go get the girl."

Shippo darted away obediently, nearly running into the sliding door as he went. His young voice could be heard calling inside the household, "Tsukiyume! Hey! Kohimu, are your parents with the hanyou girl Inuyasha brought home last night…?"

Alone on the pathway to the house Sasugainu hazarded speaking to his cousin, who had now taken up an unfriendly, cross armed stance on the verandah. "You are wounded."

"Yeah, I am. You got something to say about it?"

Sasugainu noticed that the hanyou was wearing a sword at his waist. Apparently he was accustomed to being prepared for a fight, no matter where it came from or when. Wary but driven by curiosity, Sasugainu asked, "Was there a battle here? Within your home?" he frowned, "My niece was injured…"

"Yeah," Inuyasha scoffed and then gestured at his injured shoulder. "Then she punched her hand through my shoulder!"

Sasugainu stifled his surprise. Tsukiyume wasn't normally a fighter…he wanted to ask more but at that moment his niece appeared behind Inuyasha at the door. Her nose was covered in a white gauze and her skin was a little grayer than usual—but her dog ears had returned and the girl's orange eyes were pleased to see her uncle waiting outside.

"Uncle!" she hurried past Inuyasha looked as if she were about to throw her arms around Sasugainu, but at the last moment she hesitated, perhaps embarrassed. Sasugainu allowed himself a smile at her, trying to offer comfort.

"Your nose young lady, what happened here?"

Her ears fell flat, her gaze lowered to the slushy, half-melted snow. "It's not important. Uncle, I just want to go home."

From her fallen expression Sasugainu realized that she had heard what awaited her back in the Middle Lands: Taikokajin's slow, agonizing death. _And Tsukiyume is supposed to be the one to end it…?_

"That is one wish I can grant." Turning his attention to Inuyasha again, who was now joined by a warrior monk, a housewife with a huge boomerang readied over one shoulder, and the kitsune peeking at him with large, curious green eyes. He had to admire the way they bonded together, instantly ready for him to surprise them now that he had Tsuki back under his control. He had no reason to antagonize any of them further.

He bowed slightly, "I thank you, cousin Inuyasha, for caring for my niece during this time." Obviously, though it was strange to consider it, Inuyasha had been the loser when Tsukiyume and he sparred, whatever had occurred to bring it on. He hoped to get the story out of the girl as they traveled home.

"Feh," Inuyasha answered, "Just get out of here and don't come back to bother us—none of you from the clan _ever_ again." his amber eyes narrowed, apparently he was serious.

"Yes, but I was told to say to you that Lord Shimofuri, ruler of the Middle Lands, extends his greatest thanks. He admires you and welcomes you to visit his lands at any time you so desire it. Is there anything you want me to tell Lord Shimofuri for you…?"

Inuyasha blinked, taken aback. He shrugged off the surprise swiftly and snorted. Amusement sparkled in his gold gaze. "Sure. Tell him he's a great kid."

There was a moment when both the inuyoukai lord and Inuyasha met one another's gaze and a silent leap of amusement crossed between them, then Inuyasha nodded and turned to head back inside, slipping past the other watchful humans, his own private army, gathered nearby.

Sasugainu transformed himself once more into his true form and ducked low, allowing Tsukiyume to clamber onto him. Then, without looking back, both scaled the walls of Inuyasha's estate and rushed off toward home…

* * *

The young samurai lord was once again reporting to Shimofuri, outlining a strategy for repelling Nishiyori's troops back into his lands.

"If we send our troops around his we can surprise them, cut off their escape, and slaughter them all. We can use Lord Sesshomaru's armies in the west to pinch Nishiyoir's province, surrounding the entire Isei province and then moving across the whole lot of it, scouring it clean of Nishiyori's treason."

"Leave the farmers and the peasants alone." Shimofuri frowned, sighing. "They must be left behind to keep the province secure and stable."

The samurai's face was cold. "With all due respect, shishi-sama, that province is no longer truly our own. We might as well destroy it to make Lord Sesshomaru's gains a little less weighty."

Shimofuri scowled openly, remembering just how weighty Sesshomaru's gains from this war would be. At last he waved a hand at the samurai, "Then do as you see fit to the Isei province. Plunder and pillage everything." He cringed at the bitter sound to his voice.

The samurai also turned away, troubled by his lord's exposed emotion.

They were both saved from the social embarrassment by a servant who slid open the audience room door and bowed, seeking entrance. Shimofuri cleared his throat tiredly, "Yes? Speak."

The servant sat up. "Lord Sasugainu has returned with Lady Tsukiyume."

Shimofuri was at once on his feet. "Bring them here immediately." He looked to the samurai almost apologetically. "I will speak with you later."

The samurai bowed and left the room without another word.

Shimofuri waited the few minutes sit took his uncle and his sister to come into the room, he felt that in that narrow span of time was a hidden eternity. At last Sasugainu and Tsukiyume entered the room, both appearing very tired, dirty and grungy from their journey. Sasugainu gave his nephew a brief nod before sitting, but Tsukiyume gave a full bow, hiding her face from Shimofuri's eyes for a long moment before she sat up.

He spotted the white gauze taped to her nose, still with traces of blood on it. Her clothes were dirtied and hardly worthy of her. Shimofuri scowled. "Tsukiyume? What's happened to you?" despite his facial expression his tone was one of worry, almost of a fatherly nature.

Tsuki kept her eyes pinned to the floor, as if shy, but she didn't answer his question and her tone was a harder one, colder. "It isn't important. I need to see Mother."

Shimofuri could almost feel his face paling. Taikokajin had slipped further and further away. Her fevers had begun. The last he had seen her all of her bandages were soaked through. The healers no longer bothered changing them. They watched him with a hidden scorn in their eyes, wondering how cruel a son he could be that he left his mother to suffer so long and so slowly.

"Tsuki…" he shifted uneasily, "There is something you must know. Mother is dying—and she's asked that _you_ be the one to end her life."

His sister swallowed loudly; still she hadn't lifted her eyes to look at her brother. "I know."

Shimofuri kept his face from revealing his shock. _Sasugainu must have told her…_ Instead he cleared his throat and spoke again. "There is more. Lord Sesshomaru has made a pact with Uncle and I. There is a war between our province and the Isei. Lord Sesshomaru volunteered to help us, for a price of course. And he…" Shimofuri found he could no longer look at his sister, even though she had yet to meet his eye. "He has asked that you be sent to him—as a guest…"

"A hostage." Tsukiyume replied, bitterly. Her ears fell backward, stark white against her straight black hair.

Shimofuri hurried to put in the other details, "He says a _guest. _Lord Sesshomaru is a prideful lord, he will not betray us. He will educate you; you will be a companion to Lady Rin, his mate. He desires a hanyou mentor for his hanyou offspring, a hanyou instructor and teacher…" misery choked Shimofuri's voice and he stopped, letting silence claim the room.

"Let me see Mother." Tsuki spoke up, sighing.

"Are you certain—" Sasugainu began, speaking for the first time in a long while.

"Yes, take me to Mother." She finally lifted her eyes, meeting Shimofuri's gray-eyed gaze with her own startling orange. "I need to see Mother."

Shimofuri looked away and nodded, "You will then."

* * *

The moment the three entered the room Taikokajin was seemingly reanimated. She gasped, croaking, and called out, "Kokoro!"

Tsukiyume, last in line, cringed at the smells of death and sickness within the room. Tears came at once to her eyes as she saw her mother's face, completely swathed in bandages. The stink flowing from her was one of decay, her body was slowly rotting, unable and perhaps unwilling to battle onward any longer.

Sasugainu knelt first at his sister's side, Shimofuri stayed distant, lingering at the end of the bed. Tsukiyume walked toward the bedside with tiny, terrified footsteps. Her face was wide and blank, but her eyes were wide and full of horror. They were also burgeoning with tears.

"Sister," Sasugainu called to her, his voice was detached, cold. He was physically in the room but mentally he was elsewhere, running away from the horrible agony and dishonor his sister was suffering…but no one was responsible for it but her own self. Taikokajin had kept the miko mother locked away, mistreated her, tried to take her child away…

"Your children are both here, Sister. Shimofuri and Tsukiyume are both with you now."

Her pink eyes snapped open; Tsukiyume could almost hear the popping sound. She cringed and the first of her many tears began to pour out. "Mother…" she fell to her knees at her mother's bedside and dropped her head, crying.

Taikokajin cried out, _"Haiseishoku!"_ her voice was thick and raspy, like feet walking over gravel. She had not used it in days. The maids and healers all believed she was near death.

"He's not here." Sasugainu murmured, slowly, patiently. "Big Sister, your children have come home to see you one last time."

"_Haiseishoku!"_ Taikokajin wailed, pink eyes wide as dinner plates, _"Kokoro!"_ her hands, wrapped in graying linen bandages, shot out from underneath the fur coverings. One snatched hold of Tsukiyume's arm, the other waved in the air weakly, searching for Shimofuri. _"Forgive me!"_

"They are gone," Sasugainu reiterated, still utterly patient. "These are Shimofuri and Tsukiyume…your _pups…"_

Tsukiyume was choking on her tears, her childlike voice was thick with them, "She thinks we're our fathers, shishi-sama."

Shimofuri moved slowly around the other side of the bed, kneeling there. When Taikokajin's hand appeared, fumbling for him, he took it. He sighed, heavily. "Mother, it's Shimofuri. It's me, me and Tsuki. She's alive, just like you said she would be…"

Tsukiyume whimpered, crying still more tears at her brother's words. She stared between her brother and her mother's wide, unseeing pink gaze. "Did you really want me to end your life, Mother? How could I…" she shook her head, her shoulder shook as she started to dissolve into sobs.

"They are with you," she croaked, faintly, her voice muffled through her graying bandages. _"Haiseishoku!"_ as she screeched the name she squeezed Shimofuri's hand, _"Kokoro!"_ her grip closed on Tsukiyume's too then. _"Forgive me!"_

Tsukiyume lifted her gaze, suddenly becoming still. Her tears fell silently now, her stare became unseeing. "They are here…" she breathed.

Taikokajin's hand wrenched closed with every bit of her last strength onto her daughter's hand. _"Haiseishoku!"_

Tsukiyume closed her eyes, shivering. When she spoke again it was very slowly, very carefully. "Yes, Taikokajin? You took our son from me."

Taikokajin shrieked, _"Forgive me!"_

Tsuki answered in the same slow voice. "I cannot."

Taikokajin sagged in the bed, becoming limp for a moment.

Shimofuri stared at his sister across the bed, his gray eyes wide, his heart pounding. His memories of Haiseishoku were faint, and he cursed himself for not remembering his father's speech patterns. Had Haiseishoku spoken in a slow, unhurried way like that? "Tsuki…" he whispered, his voice full of awe.

Sasugainu threw him a glare, silencing him. The questions would come later. For now this was what Taikokajin had been waiting for, suffering for. This was what she had wished to live for before she at last died…

"_Please…"_ she whispered from inside the layers of soiled bandages.

"I cannot." Haiseishoku spoke again through Tsuki's lips. "You took everything from me. Why? I loved you once…"

Taikokajin again tightened her grip on both her children, _"I feared you!"_

"I never wanted to hate you." Tsuki sighed slowly, her shoulder shuddering, "You killed me."

"_Forgive me!"_

"You ask on your deathbed. I cannot. When you have passed on, perhaps then I will see if you are true. Until then I cannot. You must die with this sin on your soul."

Taikokajin gasped, writhing, _"Kokoro!"_

There was a pause and Shimofuri and Sasugainu locked their eyes onto Tsukiyume as her eyes moved behind her closed lids, flickering wildly. At last she spoke again, "Yes?"

"_Forgive me! I am sorry!"_ her hands were shaking, quivering where she held her children's wrists.

There was another pause and then, "I will forgive you, Lady. You could not keep my daughter and I apart, though you tried, I have found her. You pay for your crimes now."

There was a gasp from Taikokajin. She might've been trying to speak again, but they would never know. Her exhalation was choked and ragged, and her pink eyes did not slide closed again. Her hands where she held Shimofuri and Tsukiyume's wrists suddenly fell limp.

"Mother!" Shimofuri called, leaning closer to her. He gritted his teeth with frustration and dropped her limp hand angrily. "Damn!"

Sasugainu lowered his eyes, scowling.

Tsukiyume slowly blinked, coming out of her trance-like state, and looked on her mother again, only to cover her mouth with her hand and choke on the first of her grief-stricken sobs. "Mother…no, no…"

Shimofuri rose from his position, walking coldly away to stand at the doorway. He stared almost angrily at his sister's sobbing form, at Sasugainu's slow, somber movements. His uncle appeared at his side, silently backing the young, troubled lord.

"Her suffering is finished." His uncle sighed, relieved. He stared at his nephew with a keen, worried stare. "Will you recover, Nephew?"

Shimofuri pursed his lips, but otherwise his expression remained unaffected. "We have lose everything, Uncle. I have failed in every way. Mother is gone; I cannot fight Nishiyori by myself. I have as good as sold my soul to Sesshomaru. And…" he gestured at his sobbing sister and lowered his eyes. "I will lose her to Sesshomaru as well." He looked up frankly at his uncle, despair tinged his blue eyes. "What is there really left for me?"

Sasugainu shook his head, "Marriage, Nephew. There is still marriage and heirs and pups left for you. You are young, you have not failed as you think you have." He laid a hand on his nephew's shoulder, a silent move to offer comfort. "And Sesshomaru's deal for her is not a bad one. She will write to you, she will be educated, you can visit her whenever you so desire. I have no doubt that Lord Sesshomaru will honor the arrangement and do well by it."

Shimofuri sighed and slowly turned away to exit the room.

Sasugainu stopped him, calling his name. "Shimofuri."

The young lord turned, despair still lingering in his eyes.

Sasugainu hazarded throwing his nephew a wan smile. "Your cousin Inuyasha still believes in you. He told me to tell you that you're a great kid."

Shimofuri paused, thinking for a moment, and then finally he smirked, a little hope entering his gaze as he considered his cousin who had worked to overcome the loss of his own mother as nothing more than a pup. Though he turned away from Sasugainu without saying anything, and began to walk down the empty hallway, he had already begun to feel a little rejuvenated. _Life could certainly be worse…_

But the new emptiness he could already feel growing in the hall troubled him. _I'll have to marry soon,_ he thought, _and banish the emptiness in this place, the old ghosts…_

He turned the corner and was gone.

* * *

Kasai and Koinu stared at each other, fascinated. Kasai was the first to react, reaching out and grabbing Koinu's dog ears. She began to chortle happily, grinning. She let out a loud, shrill toddler screech: _"Aaaaaahhh! Baaaaaa!!"_

Koinu scowled and pushed at her chubby body, grunting his displeasure. His clawed fingertips pricked her slightly and Kasai let go of his ears and stared down at her stomach curiously, searching for the offending thing that had touched her. It didn't occur to her just yet that it had been Koinu.

Koinu still stared at her unhappily. While she was still poking at her stomach, utterly baffled, Koinu reached out and grabbed her hair. He grinned when she screeched a distinctive, "Ooooow!" and then started to cry, kicking and slapping at him.

"Good for him, he hates her." Kohimu smirked at his little sister and at Koinu. At his side Tisoki giggled.

Shippo glanced up from his rice balls and rolled his eyes. "You guys, that's not being responsible. Don't let Koinu hurt Kasai like that."

But just as Shippo said that Kasai, knocked Koinu's grip from her hair and—older and more developed—lunged at him. Koinu fell over, eyes wide and shocked at the sudden turn of events. Kasai started to shriek half-formed words: "Gaaaah! Baaah! Ooooo…"

She rested her face against Koinu's, and then, apparently bored when the confused pup did not immediately fight back; she started to suck on one of his elbows.

"Ew!" Tisoki frowned, "Kohimu get her off him!"

"You do it, I don't wanna touch her, she'll get me all spitty." The older boy nudged his sibling disgustedly.

Shippo rolled his eyes again. "I'll do it, wimps." He huffed, getting up. "You know you two should get used to handling babies—you're going to have to help your mother again soon." Shippo grunted as he hauled Kasai's squealing, squirming body off Koinu.

"What?" Tisoki asked blandly, not comprehending.

Kohimu, older, understood what their kitsune "cousin" meant by the comment. "Oh no!" he whined, scowling with disgust, "I'm tired of babies! This one better not be another _girl."_

Understanding at last reached Tisoki as well, but unlike his older brother he looked pleased. "Oh! I hope it's a boy! A nice brother—not like Kohimu."

"Shut up!"

Shippo dragged Kasai back toward the table, chuckling at the brothers. Back on the floor, Koinu had righted himself and was staring after Kasai with wide, perplexed blue eyes. He was fascinated with the other baby even at a distance. Kasai had already forgotten him though. Instead she was fighting with Shippo, reaching for his ears, pawing at his face, his body. Shippo tried fighting her off and then gave up, moving away instead. He took note of Koinu's continuing stare after Kasai and grinned.

"Don't worry Koinu, she won't bug you again, I got her."

The pup cocked his head and then, gradually, his ears fall backwards and his face wrinkled up, about to start crying.

"Uh oh."

"Icky! Koinu _wants_ to play with Kasai!" Tisoki made a face and took shelter behind his older brother.

Kasai looked up and over at Koinu when he started to cry. Her violet-blue eyes, dark black hair all the spitting image of her father's but in female form and much, much younger. She clapped her hands and squealed, pointing at Koinu and babbling. The pup stopped his crying at the sounds and her movement, once again watching with intense fascination.

"He wants someone to play with." Shippo sighed, "Inuyasha and Kagome will just have to have another pup."

"It's _not_ worth it, Koinu." Kohimu grumbled.

Tisoki elbowed him in the ribs, "Hey!"

Shippo shook his head at the antics of the brothers and then turned his eyes to follow Inuyasha who'd just appeared, stamping down the hallway, amber eyes searching the floor for his son. The hanyou's appearance made the children snap to attention and stop fighting. He was still sporting a bandage on his shoulder from the battle with Tsukiyume, but aside from that he was healthy, though by his walk Shippo knew the hanyou was fatigued.

Inuyasha knelt and scooped Koinu up in his arms. The baby nestled happily into his father's arms, ears falling into a tired, relaxed position.

Before Inuyasha could turn and leave, Shippo announced, "Koinu wants a brother or a sister!"

The hanyou stopped, staring at the kitsune as if he'd only just noticed him sitting at the table. "What makes you say that?"

The brothers scrambled to answer before Shippo could. "He was looking at Kasai." "When Shippo took Kasai away Koinu started to cry. I don't know why since she's really gross."

Inuyasha glanced between the two boys, blinking in slight bafflement. "Okay." The amber eyes turned to Shippo for clarification. "What the hell are they saying?"

"Koinu wanted to play with Kasai, he's lonely." The kit answered.

Inuyasha's response was disturbed by a heavy, thick yawn. "Okay—I'll worry about that later." He started to leave and then paused looking back to Shippo again. "When's the next new moon?"

The kit and the brothers blinked at him stupidly. Kasai squealed and clapped her baby hands again; she dropped down on the floor and started to gnaw on the table leg.

"I don't think it's very far away—a week? Why?" Shippo asked.

There was a faint, but tired smirk in the hanyou's amber gaze. "Nothing." He yawned once more and at last walked away.

* * *

_And now we are done!! YAY! Well I will have an epilogue up for you anyway, so we're not totally done. The epilogue will examine Tsukiyume's existance in Sesshomaru's palace, and a return home to the future for Kagome, Koinu, and Inuyasha..._


	37. Epilogue: I Don't Like Ramen

A/N: Again the poetry is mine; I have all rights to it. Wow! I wanted to get to this epilogue for so, SO long. I said that this would develop what Sesshomaru's plans for Tsukiyume at his castle were, but I've decided to cut that. It's unrelated to this general plotline anymore. Suffice to say that Sesshomaru wanted a hostage to make sure Sasugainu and Shimofuri were loyal to him and did their part of the deal, but not only that he also wanted her because she's hanyou. She would keep Rin company while he's away fighting wars and what have you. Also he planned to train her to be ready as a teacher for his and Rin's offspring one day. Who better to teach hanyou children than a hanyou instructor? Anyway, that was that idea, but I cut it, killed it, murdered it dead. It's buried somewhere in a shallow, unmarked grave. Enjoy the epilogue!)

Disclaimer: Nope do not own them

* * *

Last chapter: Tsukiyume went home. Taikokajin died. The end. Well, sorta. Almost. Maybe.

* * *

**Epilogue: I Don't Like Ramen**

_In this summer that we pass  
Away from the bitterness, we lie  
Watching the cotton ball clouds pass us by,  
While in the heavens, stars twinkle at night  
Away from the bitterness of the past, we lie  
Staring at the same sky, seeing the same light  
_

* * *

"_Leh-go!"_ Koinu screeched in his high pitched toddler's voice, _"Leh me go!"_ this was followed by little grunts and growls. 

"Inuyasha!" it was Souta's voice, calling frantically, _"Please!"_

The aforementioned hanyou was awake, sprawled out over the Higurashis' kitchen floor near the door, waiting for Kagome and her mother to return home. They'd left hours before for an appointment with a doctor. Inuyasha had wanted desperately to come as well—like a guard dog he hovered over Kagome continuously, protecting her possessively—but Mrs. Higurashi had insisted that Kagome go with her, to turn it into a mother-daughter event. Inuyasha couldn't shake off the feeling that they were out there, with whoever that _doctor_ was, talking about _him…_

He'd been lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling with his amber eyes wide open and irritated ever since.

For a long time Koinu had been with him, also worried over his mother much like a dog. But as a toddler he lost interest in his father's waiting game swiftly and was enticed away by his uncle Souta and great-grandpa Higurashi. They'd tried to play with him at first, teach him a little, showed him new toys they'd gotten for him—but then they'd decided to try and give him a _bath…_

Inuyasha kept one ear pinned to the fight upstairs in the bathroom, listening with growing annoyance to his son's cries. It was an instinctual response. Koinu's cries made him want to harm Souta and Grandpa Higurashi, even though he knew they were right, Koinu _needed_ that bath.

"_Inuyasha!"_ Grandpa's creaking old voice rolled from upstairs. There was a splash of water, followed by more screams.

A loud thumping sound, and then the wet patter of tiny feet. That noise was also accompanied by a sniffling, snuffling crying. Inuyasha knew it at once and sighed. "Koinu?" he called.

A toddler padded into the kitchen, dripping wet, leaving small puddle footsteps behind him. His skin was pink from the warm water in the bath and probably from scrubbing. Inuyasha could make out the patterns of adult fingertips on his son's plump toddler body. The little boy's hair was wet and plastered his head and neck, half-blocking his eyes. His ears, however, stood upright defiantly, even more pronounced because the extra fluff of his hair was pinned down by the water. He was steady on his feet for only being a year and a half old, and already a good talker.

"Daddy!" he whimpered, throwing his wet little body onto Inuyasha's chest. "Daddy, help me!"

Inuyasha sat up, wrapping his arms around the toddler. Kagome, in his place, might've started talking to their son to soothe him, but Inuyasha had a different strategy. He smoothed his fingers gently through his son's hair, touched faintly on his little white ears.

Souta and Gramps appeared at the top of the stairs, huffing. Gramps was the first to cross his arms and harrumph. "It's impossible!"

"I'm sure Kagome can do it." Souta sighed, running a hand through his hair. He glanced at his watch distractedly. "I need to call Chiwa!"

"Oh no you don't! You aren't getting away that easily, Souta!" Gramps snapped, "That's your nephew down there! We need to have him all cleaned and dressed before Kagome and your mother get home from the doctors!"

"But Gramps—Chiwa expects me to call at…"

"I don't want to hear your excuses, boy!" Gramps shook his head, pinching his old wrinkled lips together. "Now go get Inuyasha to help us because you're not going to get to call Chiwa or Kumi or Shina or Sarah, or Nokoma, or…" he threw his hands into the air helplessly, "Whatever their names are, you can't call a single one until you finish with my great-grandson."

Souta immediately let his shoulders fall in a pout. "Gramps…" he whined. "That's not fair! The kid kicks and claws and screams…"

"And you're a coward, Souta! He's just a baby!"

"Yeah—but Gramps, you've never seen what Inuyasha can do with claws _just like that."_

In the kitchen Inuyasha sighed again and at last rose to his feet, holding Koinu in his arms, and moved toward the stairs. "Hey!" he shouted, interrupting their fight. The two men, one young and one very old, stared down at the hanyou expectantly. "When is Kagome coming back?"

"Not soon enough…" Souta grumbled.

"Ah," Gramps cleared his throat and clasped his hands together, "Inuyasha, these appointments usually take time, but she should be home soon."

"Feh." Inuyasha snorted and shifted Koinu higher on his hip. "Nothing takes this long, she's just dawdling!" he scowled, "And what's the matter with them anyway? Leaving me here…"

Souta smirked, "I think it has something to do with your ears, Inuyasha. That and Koinu cries like a hellion when both of you go somewhere without him."

Koinu reacted instantly with his name, turning to look up at Souta with a fiery scowl, mimicking his father. His ears turned backward, "Meanie!" he shrieked, making Inuyasha flinch because his son's high voice was so close his ears. "Souta!" he might've tried to say more but the other words were more growls than anything else, rumbling high in the toddler's chest.

Inuyasha frowned at Koinu, "_You_ need to get dressed."

Koinu pulled back from his father just enough so that he could stare back with his wide, horrified blue gaze. "No!" he squeaked. "No!"

"Yes, yes." And with that Inuyasha started up the stairs, moving toward Kagome's old room. Souta and Gramps watched him pass, a little flustered. Gramps tried to speak up, asking if Inuyasha wanted Koinu to finish his bath.

"He smells clean enough to me." Inuyasha threw the response over his shoulder; sighing again as he entered Kagome's bedroom and dug through the pack his wife had brought with her full of baby supplies and baby clothes. Koinu struggled in his other arm, punching his father with tiny fists of fury.

"No! Don't wanna! No! Don't wanna!"

Inuyasha ignored the temper tantrum, much as he might've ignored Shippo years ago while they were hunting Shards.

He picked out some underwear—Koinu had half-potty trained himself from a young age, he was more interested in peeing outside like a dog anyway—and some pants, a soft dark blue color. They were the most comfortable, some of the only stuff that Koinu wouldn't rip off—well, not as often as he tore off his other clothes anyway.

He set Koinu onto the bed and the pup half-crawled, half leapt away from him, ears flat and eyes narrowed with a challenge. "Don't wanna!"

"Koinu," Inuyasha had adopted his fatherly warning voice now, a sure sign that things were about to end disastrously for the pup. "When your mother gets home you're gonna be dressed, you understand me?"

Koinu crossed his arms and frowned. It was disturbingly familiar for Inuyasha, seeing the pup's stance, his mimicry. At times Koinu was _too_ much like him, particularly with something like this, getting his way. He was beginning to wonder if he and Kagome would need a subduing spell for Koinu just to discipline him. Koinu was stubborn and hard-headed, and that worried Inuyasha.

Although he was proud of his son he often worried about him. The world would not be kind to Koinu. Like Inuyasha he was impure, neither human nor youkai. Only his family would accept the pup as an individual, ignoring his mixed heritage. If something were to happen to Inuyasha and Kagome…as a parent Inuyasha found himself thinking like that more often, worriedly. If his son was alone, would he survive? Was he strong enough?

The pup was like him, hardy, stubborn, block-headed. Those were not necessarily good survival traits. If the pup were alone and ran across a much more powerful youkai, would he be smart enough to run away, rather than stay out of stubborn pride to fight and die uselessly?

When he tried confiding these concerns to Kagome she'd actually _laughed_ at him, to his surprise. _"All toddlers are like this Inuyasha. It doesn't mean he'll retain all of this—even though his father did."_ She'd tweaked his ears, kissing him to stop his further complaints and huffing at her semi-insult. _"And besides, if you haven't noticed it, Koinu has a very soft heart. I see myself in him everyday."_ Of course he'd stared at her skeptically, unbelievingly. There was not an ounce of Kagome in their child. She touched his face, stroking him until he was calm and listening again, not thinking and worrying. Then she'd whispered, _"I know you don't believe me—but just wait. Watch him. It's there."_

Inuyasha sighed, ears lying flat, much like his son's. "Look Koinu, you might as well come here and let me get you dressed…" the pup looked unconvinced, stubborn. Inuyasha decided to try it from a different angle, "What will your mother think, Koinu? You're going to get me into trouble."

The pup's expression rippled, suddenly transforming into a wrinkled mask of tears. "I'm sorry!" he sniffled and crawled out of the corner obediently. "I'm sorry, Daddy." He was staring up at his father with big round, teary blue eyes, begging forgiveness. He was still wet; he left wet patches on Inuyasha and on Kagome's old single bed.

Inuyasha grinned down at his son, "That's more like it!" he knelt to be more on level with the pup and began drying him off with the sleeves of his haori—not the battered and worn out red one, but this one a light brown—a gift from Miroku and Sango earlier in the year. He didn't much care for it, a fact that he let Kagome know about frequently when she forced him to change out of his favorite red one. It was fluffier and nicer than the red Fire Rat robes though, it worked quite well to mop up the old bathwater on his son's skin.

Koinu was still whimpering when his father had at last dried him completely and was trying, delicately, to get Koinu to lie down so he could slip on the toddler's little scrap of cloth underwear. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

"Quit apologizing, Koinu. It's okay. You're forgiven."

"Will Mama still be mad?"

"I dunno—probably not." He was preoccupied with fighting with Koinu's pants, trying to slip the trousers over the pup's legs, getting the elastic cuffs over his son's ankles. "Damn." He cursed under his breath when Koinu moved and the cuff slipped off again.

"Damn." Koinu repeated, tasting the new word. He was only a year and a half old but he was word-hungry, and unwittingly Inuyasha had already taught him many adult words.

"No, no, no. Koinu, don't say that word. It will make your mother mad."

"Okay." He smiled, proudly showing a few teeth and his fangs, extra sharp and pointy, like a puppy's "milk teeth." (A/N: We have a puppy that just finished teething and we're all very, very pleased about that. His puppy teeth, "milk teeth" were needle-sharp and painful. Imagine Koinu has the same sort of thing but in human form, so he will have these sharper teeth until he's five or six years old…)

The pants were finally on. Inuyasha sighed with relief. "All right. Let's go wait for your mother to get back from that damned doctor's."

Koinu sat up, reaching for his father at once. "Daddy, Daddy!" Inuyasha picked up his son and walked back toward the stairs. Koinu babbled from his high vantage point, "Hurry Mama! Hurry! Damn doctor…" he was tasting both newer words now, and enjoying them. His tiny clawed fingers played with Inuyasha's hair.

"What did I tell you about that word?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"I dunno. What's doctor?"

"A big waste of time. How about we get your mean old Uncle Souta to make us some Ramen?"

Koinu scowled, "Icky."

"I know, Uncle Souta's a meanie, but you'll like Ramen." Inuyasha reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around, searching for Kagome's pesky younger brother. "Where is that little Miroku-wanna-be anyway?"

"Mama gave me Ramen." Koinu made choking noises and squirmed in his father's arms. "Don't want any more."

Inuyasha paused and then threw his son an incredulous look, "What was that, Koinu?"

Souta appeared then, having heard his name amidst their conversation. He had a phone cradled against one shoulder and was frowning, half-distracted, at his brother-in-law and nephew. "Can I speak with Chiwa please?"

"I don't like Ramen." Koinu shoved one thumb into his mouth and gazed innocently around the room. "Where's Mama?"

Souta's expression, beginning to crackle with mirth at Koinu's words and Inuyasha's stunned face at the news that _his son_ didn't like Ramen, abruptly switched to one of horror. He turned away, one finger blocking out the ear that wasn't attached to the phone. "What? This isn't Chiwa's house? Who's…" there was a pause and then he half-choked, saying, "Suki? What? No! Chiwa is—she's my friend—uh—Enji's girlfriend, yeah…"

Inuyasha had momentarily forgotten his son's announcement to smirk at Souta's backsides. "Feh. Serves him right." His ear tweaked, twitching, as a sound reached him from just outside the house. Inuyasha lost interest in Souta's plight and walked for the kitchen, plastering a scowl on his face. Koinu held onto him, gazing out at the world with bright, curious blue eyes.

The front door opened and in slipped Mrs. Higurashi, her arms loaded with grocery bags. She nearly plowed into Inuyasha and gasped. "Oh—hello Inuyasha! How are you?" from the fowl look on his face she knew the answer to that question wasn't positive.

"Where's Kagome?" he demanded, "And what took you so long?"

"Doctor." Koinu spoke up from Inuyasha's arms, "Big waste of time!"

"Oh actually it was lovely Koinu-dear." Mrs. Higurashi started to gush, slipping carefully past Inuyasha to place the bags of groceries onto the kitchen counter. "Kagome and I met with the doctor and he actually gave us a tape of—"

Kagome entered then, her arms also laden with grocery bags. Inuyasha moved immediately, scowling angrily as he moved to intercept his wife. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Those are too heavy for you!"

"They are not!" Kagome tried to move past him but Inuyasha mirrored her movements on purpose, always staying in front of her to prevent her from moving. Mrs. Higurashi sighed from across the kitchen, rolling her eyes as her daughter fought the ever-losing battle with her stubborn, over-protective husband.

"They are too!" the hanyou turned and set Koinu onto a counter, pointing a finger at the pup warningly, "Don't move."

"Okay." The pup answered, calm and innocent. He looked between his grandmother and Kagome, smiling wide with his little fanged canines gleaming. His parents fought frequently, but unlike most children, who would have reacted to tones and words themselves to identify emotion, Koinu could smell his father's _worry,_ not _anger._ It was _worry_ that made him fight with Kagome, not _anger._ Anger was the decoy, the cover story to prevent the weakness of _worry_ from being discovered.

"Inuyasha—I'm _fine."_ Kagome huffed.

"Put those things down."

She sighed, giving in and putting the grocery bags onto the floor. "Are you happy now?"

"Mama's mad." Koinu announced, looking toward his grandmother. "Daddy did a stupid." She was, after all, the only one in the room that couldn't smell the emotions underlying the fight, so Koinu figured he'd better let her in on the secret.

At his words Inuyasha's ears turned backward and Kagome heaved a heavy sigh. "Aren't you even going to ask how things went at the doctor's, Inuyasha?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

The hanyou scowled at her, "Going there was a big waste of time, Kagome—"

Mrs. Higurashi interrupted him, her voice eager and happy, "The doctor gave us the tape of the sonogram, Inuyasha! That was certainly not a waste! Now you can see your new baby before it's born!" she was grinning, beaming, full of happiness for her daughter in spite of the usual squabbling.

When her comment was greeted for several seconds by a very confused stare from Inuyasha, Mrs. Higurashi reached into one of the grovery bags near her and revealed a deli box, still steaming. "Who wants barbeque chicken? Kagome was having cravings in the store so we stopped and bought some of this—and," she stopped, suddenly remembering something, "That was when we ran into poor sweet Hojo too! And then we got the ice cream, Inuyasha you _have _to try the flavor we got you, and some chocolate for my little grandson too…"

But Inuyasha had long since lost interest in her rant. His amber eyes were back on Kagome, narrowed and dangerous. "Hojo?" he growled.

His nostrils were flaring wide, searching Kagome's scent to make sure Hojo hadn't made any moves on his wife—he was relieved, but still irritated, when he noted that the scent left on Kagome was little and hardly noticeable. Mainly he could only smell barbeque on her. She was in the cravings stage of her pregnancy, always ravenous, enough that she rivaled _him_ and Koinu.

"Yes, Inuyasha, we ran into Hojo while we were in the store. He stopped and said hi and asked how you and Koinu were. Nothing more." Her eyes were soft and held a tired, almost pained look within them. The last time she'd seen Hojo had been just before—Inuyasha stopped, suddenly feeling his guts clench up. _Just before Garou abducted her. _

He continued to stare at her, too stunned to react just yet.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably, pushing the door shut behind her after lightly kicking the groceries away. She moved like what she was—a heavily pregnant woman. Walking with a little wider stance than what was normal, and a little pigeon-toed. She was always going to be a skinny woman; even while she was pregnant her most obvious feature was her long-leggedness. The lump of her belly was substantial as she was a solid eight months pregnant—which was one of the driving reasons why Inuyasha was so overly protective.

Their second child hadn't been too long in coming now that the couple understood how to defeat their, or rather Inuyasha's fertility problems. And yet, though conception was a lot easier this time around, Inuyasha's overprotective nature had only grown worse.

"Did you want me to tell him whether he's having another boy or a girl, Kagome?" Mrs. Higurashi was asking, "I know you said you didn't want to know but if Inuyasha wants to know the doctor _did_ tell me…"

Inuyasha at last recovered from his troubling memories of the last time his wife had seen Hojo. He turned to scowl at Mrs. Higurashi. "I already know it's a girl. I've known for months!"

Koinu's ears swiveled, taking in the adults' conversation from his place on the countertop where he had faithfully not moved since Inuyasha had placed him there.

"You can't know that…" Mrs. Higurashi was saying, dismissing Inuyasha's claim.

"He knew last time, Mom." Kagome pushed her way to the counter where Koinu was sitting and picked her son up, grunting and reaching for her back with discomfort as she did so.

In the blink of an eye Inuyasha was there, fussing over her. "Give Koinu to me, Kagome. You shouldn't be lifting anything…"

"I'm fine, Inuyasha." She grumbled.

"No you're not! I don't want you hurting yourself!" Inuyasha followed her out of the kitchen, still bickering.

Mrs. Higurashi rolled her eyes, slowly pulling out the barbequed chicken again, followed with Ramen in her other fist. It was a wonder the couple survived sometimes. She smiled and began to hum to herself as she filled a pot with water and set it on the stove to boil it. The tiny grooves in the surface of the pot made her think of the grainy image of her grandchild in the sonogram, a little girl. A string of pearls for the spine, the faint outline of a face. They'd searched for ears together—an agreement they struck up in private beforehand—but none had shown up, though Koinu's sonogram had been much the same.

She could still remember Hojo's face when they'd met up in the grocery store. The poor young man had been stricken, pale and white as a ghost. He would have died rather than reveal—let alone remember—the story Kagome had told him. The secret was safe with him. He had of course been very pleased to see her, though he'd heard some months ago from Mrs. Higurashi already that Kagome was indeed fine, despite her strange abduction. Inuyasha had rescued her, as he always did, as he always would.

When the water started to boil Mrs. Higurashi added the Ramen noodles, still humming cheerfully to herself even as the sound of continued bickering came from the living room.

* * *

Kagome woke with a jolt, covered in sweat and aware that she desperately had to pee—_again._

She frowned as she pushed herself up and out of the narrow bed. While she stayed in the future with her family she and Inuyasha used her old bedroom, though the bed was hardly big enough for herself and Inuyasha alone. It barely fit her enlarged mass now with Koinu's. Inuyasha always took the edge of the bed or the floor, or sometimes the corner. Tonight was one of those nights when he'd taken the corner at the foot of the bed, his knees drawn up high and his fair-haired head and white ears appearing against the brown pants she'd made him wear—anything other than the same old Fire Rat red.

Koinu, left alone on the bed behind her, twitched in his sleep, his body coming alive with a dream. He frequently talked in his sleep, murmuring the new words he'd learned in a day. Tonight he muttered, "Damn. Doctor. Ramen. _Big waste of time!"_

The smile and the frown fought one another on her face. Inuyasha was hard at work, teaching their son to be just like him. But she'd seen snatches of herself in him frequently. He was soft-hearted even as a toddler, careful with his claws even when he was around inanimate objects that could not feel pain. Even his clothes, which he so despised wearing, were torn off with enough care that Kagome never had to mend holes, only had to buy new ones as the child swiftly outgrew them. Had Inuyasha also been as careful, she wondered. Or was it a trait Koinu had gotten from her?

Kagome's mother had commented, watching her grandson eating, that the child was not picky; he lacked his father's more delicate sense of taste, enjoying all ranges of the food spectrum, spicy or bland. He was quick, under most circumstances, to apologize. He wasn't a loner, he was friendly. At home, with Miroku and Sango's children, he fought to keep up with them. Kagome had seen her son compete with Kohimu, Tisoki, and even Shippo. But he was gentle with all of them, even Kasai who the others wanted to leave behind when they were playing. Often times Koinu would hold back to allow the girl to win, and then endured her brothers' teasing.

He was almost two years old but he already seemed as old as Sango and Miroku's eldest son Kohimu. It astonished her how fast he had begun walking and talking in earnest. She suspected that his sudden growth and development was a demon characteristic. He'd grown rapidly as an infant after all. She wondered if Inuyasha had acted much like Koinu as a baby himself…what would her hanyou have been like if his mother and father had lived to care for him together?

It saddened her to see him growing so fast, but then again she also treasured it. To see his growing strength and developing personality was fascinating. He would also be an excellent help to her and Sango when the new babies arrived. Sango could even be delivering across the time gap of the well even as Kagome thought about it…

She stumbled toward the bathroom across the hall, hearing Gramps snoring in one of the other bedrooms and Souta typing on his computer online, no doubt instant messaging one of his many girlfriends.

When her bladder was at last relieved, Kagome paused, staring at her face in the mirror. She looked tired, fatigued with the long day and with the baby's added weight to her body. But she could still see the strength hidden inside her own brown eyes, the youth in the lack of lines in her face, the firmness of her skin—what would her daughter, still unborn inside her, look like?

She'd been excited from the beginning of this pregnancy, the moment Inuyasha had tentatively begun to announce that she was carrying a girl this time. She knew he was hesitant to announce that—boys were easier for him to determine than a girl because the testosterone scent rising from her was so different from her usual progesterone and estrogens. With a girl there was only an increase in Kagome's female scents, and that could be merely a fluctuation of her natural hormones and not the baby's at all. But months had passed and he had not withdrawn his prediction.

She padded back out from the bathroom and slipped as soundlessly as she could into her bedroom again, only to gasp and Inuyasha's form loomed up in front of her. He smothered the gasp with a fast, firm kiss. She felt his clawed fingertips tickle the small of her back just the way he knew she liked.

When the kiss at last broke she blinked at him in the darkness, "Inuyasha?"

"Hm?" he nuzzled against the crook of her neck, taking in her scent.

"You're sure the baby's a girl still?" she tried to restrain the shudder that passed through her body as the hanyou attacked her neck, nipping and pressing small kisses to her skin.

"Yep." He found that the collar of her nightshirt moved away from one side of her neck, revealing a shoulder. He attacked it at once.

In spite of their constant bickering and Inuyasha's badgering Kagome to keep her "safe for her own good" as the hanyou saw it, there was still plenty of passion to go around, though as Koinu had grown older and more aware it was stifled slightly. Though the hanyou was overprotective Kagome understood why—there'd been so many times he had nearly lost her in the past…

"What should we name her?" Kagome asked, her voice noticeably breathy, half a whisper half a little too overwhelmed by his sudden outburst of affection.

Inuyasha paused his assault, giving her question serious thought. A daughter, not a son. He hadn't named Koinu, the name had been one picked by Kagome at the last moment before she had fled certain death by Sesshomaru years ago. It had almost been fanciful, a name for a child he would never see, but now held everyday in his arms—and sometimes had to scold, bargain, and beg…what name was there for a daughter he hadn't seen yet? But he had an answer to that question because he could _smell_ his daughter through Kagome's own scent. Though she was as yet unborn she still bore her own unique scent that leached through Kagome's skin to touch Inuyasha's delicate, powerful sense of smell.

She was like Koinu, a scent crossed between himself and Kagome. Kagome bore a gentle, calming scent, perhaps like vanilla or like a flower of some type. He possessed a scent that was deeper, muskier and more powerful, almost overwhelming Kagome's own delicate, natural perfume. In Koinu the mixture created a scent that was rich, like fertile earth in the deep virgin forest, like pine trees perhaps. But in their unborn daughter the mixture was gentler, subtle and dominated by the female spectrum.

She smelled almost like rain…

"Akisame?" he asked, pulling back to look her in the eye questioningly.

Kagome's brow furrowed. "Autumn rain?"

Suddenly uncertain Inuyasha pulled away slightly, shrugging. "That's…what she smells like."

For a moment Kagome stared, eyes wide, and then, as she realized Inuyasha's pride—more fragile than it appeared at times—was being slowly injured, she smiled instead and reached out to touch his cheek tenderly. "It sounds like a beautiful name, Inuyasha."

A half smile tried to tug at his lips, "Feh." His ears moved backward briefly and then flicked back into their normal positions. "You have any ideas?"

She smiled, still touching his cheek lovingly. "If she has your eyes I want to call her Hinoiri." _Sunset._

Inuyasha scowled. _How the hell does she always come up with something so fast?_

Worry crossed Kagome's face at his expression. "You don't like it?"

"No I like it just fine—"

"Are you sure?" Kagome still appeared skeptical so Inuyasha moved in and continued his attack on her after planting a long kiss on her lips.

"I'm sure, Kagome." He moved to her ears, touching them with his nose to inhale her scent and then letting his canines nick the sensitive flesh. When she shuddered he smirked into her hair, satisfied that he had soothed her uncertainties. Her hands rose and wrapped about his neck, seeking skin of her own to touch. Her lips moved on his jaw line, on his neck, his Adam's apple…

And then, from on the bed, Koinu made a sharp squeaking sound, jerking half-awake and calling out, _"Waste of time! Damn!"_ his sleepy eyes were bright and glimmering in the darkness. His ears swiveled, searching the room for sound as he realized his mother wasn't next to him any longer on the bed. He whimpered, "Mama?"

His parents sighed, pulling away from each other. "Later." Kagome tweaked one of her mate's ears, making the hanyou growl anew and involuntarily with desire.

"Daddy?" Koinu whimpered, sniffling, seeking his father's scent.

Kagome slipped past Inuyasha and walked her pregnant shuffle back toward the bed and the shivering Koinu. "Sorry, Koinu," she stroked his head, touched his little nose with her thumb. "Mommy's back, time to sleep again. Were you having a bad dream, baby?"

"You made Ramen." Koinu answered her, sleepily. "Icky."

Inuyasha shook his head, staring off with disbelief at the foot of the bed as he settled once more into his corner. He didn't say anything but Kagome knew he was astounded, wondering how any son of his, especially one that looked so much like him and acted so much like him too, could ever hate Ramen. But that was life, and Koinu most certainly hated it. She'd given him a little from Inuyasha's bowl the previous day, chopping the noodles as best as she could up before she spoon fed them to the pup carefully. He'd asked for the banana flavored baby food instead.

She settled into bed with the pup, stroking his hair, his ears. "It's all right. You can go to sleep again now." Koinu nestled into her and was almost at once sleeping again.

From his corner Inuyasha gave a "Feh." And when he saw that he had Kagome's attention he said, "His sister had better like Ramen. They can't all be like you and hate it."

Kagome laughed quietly. "I'm sure she will, Inuyasha." She settled into the pillows, closing her eyes and resting one hand on her rounded abdomen, "I'm sure she will."

* * *

(A/N: my apologies, it was a long epilogue I think…epilogues are supposed to be shorter nice little wrap-ups and such, but this wasn't. Sorry. I meant it to be shorter in planning but it just sorta grew and grew, like cheating on a diet. After the first couple of snipped corners you just kinda give in. Well with that speech out of the way, I must ask this:

Inuyasha and Kagome's unborn daughter: Akisame or Hinoiri? I have other ones I like too: Mikomi _hope,_ Muzai _innocence,_ Zarame_ brown sugar,_ Matomo _honesty._ I dunno, maybe they will have a ton of daughters. ;) but I will be open to a vote and to new suggestions. I am usually a person for sounds more than meanings. So these names were picked b/c I find them pleasing. If you have a _perfect_ meaning name that I don't like the sound of, well it's possible if it's just that perfect in meaning that I'll take it anyway, but chances are slim. At any rate I DO welcome all suggestions.

Thank you, it was been wonderful serving you all. Like the review whore I am I hope that maybe we will reach 700 before the reviews stop flooding in. But who knows, and I am happy simply at having accomplished this, finally finishing.

You know my main reason for finishing so doggedly? Thursday this week my boyfriend comes home. I knew if I didn't finish this before then I was likely never to get it done. LOL. Yes, I have a weakness, and it happens to be him.

Again, many thanks! Love you all, I am waiting on the vote, I will keep you posted, just check the profile.)


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